Exhibitions at Allan Bank
- Published:
- 07 April 2025
Allan Bank is a place where radical ideas and creativity flourish in a beautiful setting. You’ll find a permanent exhibition exploring how William Wordsworth influenced land conservation and tourism in the Lake District. Upstairs in the gallery spaces there are two art exhibitions ‘Women in Print - The Caravan Press' and ‘All The Better To Hear You With’ which run from 1 April-21 December 2025.
Wordsworth the Influencer
The new permanent exhibition looks at how William Wordsworth helped shape the Lake District we know today. It features 19th century photography displayed on large scale lightboxes of significant landscapes he helped protect including Ullswater and Grasmere, and delves into his relationship with industrial pioneer John Marshall and his family. Wordsworth wrote his radical Guide to the Lakes while at Allan Bank and a First Edition of the travel guide will be on display as well as examples of Joseph Wilkinson’s illustrations.
Women in Print - The Caravan Press
This exhibition reveals the fascinating life and print archive of Gwyneth Alban Davis, who ran a one-woman printing business whilst living in a caravan on the Langdale Estate in the 1940s. See evocative personal photos on large lightboxes, framed prints created on her original blocks hung on the wall and her jardine printing press. Her story is one of perseverance, creativity and hope in the harsh post war period.
Gwyneth's two-week holiday in Ambleside in 1946 turned into a four and a half year stay, where she found a vibrant community of artists, including Kurt Schwitters and Hilde Goldschmidt. The Langdale Estate, a former gunpowder works converted into a wooded holiday camp, had become a bohemian retreat during the war. Between 1947 and 1950, Gwyneth printed stationary, business and Christmas cards for hotels, shops and houses in the Lake District; she illustrated a local travel book and printed ‘The Story of the Merz Barn,’ a booklet promoting Schwitters’ final artwork, a few months after his death.
The exhibition is co-curated by Tracy Hill and Heather Mullender-Ross and is part of a two year programme partnership with Artlab Contemporary Print Studios (ACPS) at University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).
All The Better To Hear You With
An installation by visual artist Heather Mullender-Ross that explores how bird calls are heard, perceived, written down and memorised. The work combines drawn, etched and printed gestures of Mullender-Ross performing the bird calls – as they are written down - to generate a new experience of these sonic descriptions. The performed gestures were later transcribed into a set of twelve sound poems. The work in its entirety is presented as a personal taxonomy of sound, perceived and de-coded through play.
For families
- Look through the stereographs at vintage photos of the Lake District as part of the Wordsworth the Influencer display in gallery 1.
- Try your hand a making your own print using replicas of Gwyneth Alban Davis printing blocks. Can you find the matching print on display on the wall?
- Head to the The Art Caravan where you’ll find playful objects to make bird sounds with, printing blocks, pencils and paper.
- For more ideas, have a look at our things to do at Allan Bank article.
You might also be interested in
Green and Overflowing with Life: The Wordsworths and a love of gardens
An exhibition at Wordsworth House and Garden in Cockermouth, celebrates the love Dorothy Wordsworth and her brother William shared for nature and gardening. Find out about the gardens the Wordsworths designed and the role these green spaces still play as wildlife havens.
Walking in Grasmere
From relaxing lakeshore strolls to fell-top expeditions, when it comes to walking you’re spoilt for choice here in Grasmere. Here are some popular walks to get you started.
Things to do at Allan Bank and Grasmere
With rugged 19th century woodland grounds, formal lawns, exhibitions and surrounding countryside and lakes to explore, there’s plenty to see and do at Allan Bank and Grasmere.