Wordsworth House and Garden

Step into the 1770s at William Wordsworth’s childhood home

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.

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.

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, listen to the harpsichord, browse the books or just relax and soak up the atmosphere.

New for 2012, we have a photographic exhibition telling the story of our beautiful walled garden, and in the summerhouse on the terrace, there is an audio unit playing a selection of William’s poems.

The garden is packed with 18th-century vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers, just as it would have been in William’s day.

It was this garden, and the unspoiled surrounding countryside, which helped spark the love of nature that continued throughout his life and inspired so many of his poems.

After a stroll around it, you might feel inspired to write something yourself.