Wordsworth House and Garden

Birthplace and childhood home of William Wordsworth - a 'living' 1770s townhouse

A visit to Wordsworth House and Garden is a unique opportunity to experience late 18th-century life at first hand.

This lovely Georgian townhouse in the Cumbrian town of Cockermouth was the birthplace and childhood home of romantic poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy.

Presented as their bustling family home and peopled by costumed servants, it offers an unforgettable chance for all ages to see, smell, hear, touch and even taste what it was like to live in the 1770s.

Make yourself at home in the hands-on rooms – including an amazing working Georgian kitchen – help the servants with their chores, listen to their tales of life with the family, and learn the fascinating story of the house and garden.

Grown-ups and children can write with a quill pen and ink, dress up in replica 18th-century clothes, play with replica toys, browse the books or just relax and soak up the atmosphere. You can also listen to the harpsichord – and, if you’re musical, play a tune yourself.

There are daily ten-minute talks, poetry readings, children’s trails and tastings of recipes the Wordsworths’ servants might have prepared. During school holidays, there is also a full programme of family activities.

The beautiful walled garden is packed with 18th-century vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers, just as it would have been in William’s day. There is even a henhouse with heritage chickens.

It was this garden, and the surrounding unspoiled countryside, which helped spark the love of nature that continued throughout William’s life and inspired many of his poems. After a stroll around it, you might feel inspired to write something yourself!

Our dramatic flood exhibition brings the story of this award-winning property right up to date, telling what happened to the house – and Cockermouth as a whole – in November 2009, when the rivers Cocker and Derwent burst their banks and swept through the town engulfing everything in their path.