127-685: The Keswick Film Festival is an annual festival held in Keswick , Cumbria , England, since 2000. It is organised by the Keswick Film Club in association with Theatre by the Lake . Festival Focus refers to it as 'Cumbria's principal general film fest'. The festival includes the Osprey Short Film Awards, which recognise short films from local filmmakers. In 2014, the festival ran from 27 February until 2 March. The Osprey Short Film Awards are part of
254-472: A Saxon name; he proposed instead that the word is of Danish or Norse origin, and means "Kell's place at the bend of the river". Among the later scholars supporting the "cheese farm" toponymy are Eilert Ekwall (1960) and A. D. Mills (2011) (both Oxford University Press ), and Diana Whaley (2006), for the English Place-Name Society . Evidence of prehistoric occupation in the area includes
381-660: A battle in 839 , Vikings inflicted heavy defeats against the Picts , killing Uuen , the King of the Picts, his brother Bran and Aed son of Boanta , King of Dál Riata . The England runestones ( Swedish : Englandsstenarna ) is a group of about 30 runestones in Sweden which refer to Viking Age voyages to England. They constitute one of the largest groups of runestones that mention voyages to other countries, and they are comparable in number only to
508-562: A Local Government District in 1853 and an urban district with three wards in 1894, reflecting its growth in the latter part of the 19th century. The new urban district's northern boundary was extended from the Greta to the railway, taking in Great Crosthwaite and part of Underskiddaw in 1899. In 1974 the urban district was abolished and then the town was administered by Allerdale Borough Council. The electoral ward of Keswick stretched beyond
635-518: A continuous series of attacks on Wessex. However, due in part to the efforts of Alfred and his army, the kingdom's new defences proved to be a success, and the Viking invaders were met with a determined resistance and made less of an impact than they had hoped. By 896, the invaders dispersed—instead settling in East Anglia and Northumbria, with some instead sailing to Normandy . Alfred's policy of opposing
762-518: A document dating to 792, King Offa of Mercia set out privileges granted to monasteries and churches in Kent, but he excluded military service "against seaborne pirates with migrating fleets", showing that Viking raids were already an established problem. In a letter of 790–92 to King Æthelred I of Northumbria, Alcuin berated English people for copying the fashions of pagans who menaced them with terror. This shows that there were already close contacts between
889-462: A flush-panelled central double door with Gothic top panels and Venetian windows. A carved oak fireplace inside is dated to 1684. The Moot Hall is a prominent Grade II* listed building situated at the southern end of Main Street. It was built in 1571 and rebuilt in 1695, and the current building dates to 1813. It is built of lime-washed stone and slate walling, and has a square tower on the north end with
1016-450: A great market for the slaves captured by the vikings in Europe. Islamic law banned Muslims from enslaving other Muslims, and there was a big market for non-Muslim slaves on Islamic territory, where European slaves were referred to as saqaliba ; these slaves were likely both Pagan Slavic, Finnic and Baltic Eastern Europeans as well as Christian Western Europeans. People taken captive during
1143-585: A hermit on an island in Derwentwater, now named after him. Kentigern, who lived and preached in the area before moving to Wales, is traditionally held to have founded Crosthwaite Church , which was the parish church of Keswick until the 19th century. Keswick's recorded history starts in the Middle Ages . The area was conquered by the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria in the 7th century, but Northumbria
1270-407: A market centre, though at first the town remained only modestly prosperous: in the 1530s John Leland wrote of it as "a lytle poore market town". By the second half of the century, copper mining had made Keswick richer: in 1586 William Camden wrote of "these copper works not only being sufficient for all England, but great quantities of the copper exported every year" with, at the centre, "Keswicke,
1397-457: A number of trading ports, such as Hamwic and Ipswich , which engaged in foreign trade . In the final decade of the eighth century, Viking raiders attacked a series of Christian monasteries in the British Isles. Here, these monasteries had often been positioned on small islands and in other remote coastal areas so that the monks could live in seclusion, devoting themselves to worship without
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#17330862820631524-548: A place for potential colonisation rather than simply a place to raid. As a result of this, larger armies began arriving on Britain's shores, with the intention of conquering land and constructing settlements there. The early Viking settlers would have appeared visibly different from the Anglo-Saxon populace, wearing Scandinavian styles of jewellery, and probably also wearing their own peculiar styles of clothing. Viking and Anglo-Saxon men also had different hairstyles: Viking men's hair
1651-560: A population of 2,777 people. The population grew at a faster rate towards the late 19th century and by 1901 it stood at 4,451 people. There has been little fluctuation in population since, and in the 1991 census the town had a population of 4,836. In the 2001 census, 4,984 people were recorded, and 4,821 in 2011. At the 2021 census, 54.3% of the population identified as Christian, 37.8% as non-religious, 0.4% as Buddhist, 0.3% as Muslim, 0.2% as Hindu, and 0.3% as some other faith. The remaining 6.7 per cent did not specify their religion. Keswick
1778-488: A population of 5,243 at the 2011 census . There is evidence of prehistoric occupation of the area, but the first recorded mention of the town dates from the 13th century, when Edward I of England granted a charter for Keswick's market, which has maintained a continuous 700-year existence. The town was an important mining area , and from the 18th century has been known as a holiday centre; tourism has been its principal industry for more than 150 years. Its features include
1905-485: A round-arched doorway and a double flight of exterior steps. At the top of the tower is what the Keswick Tourist Information Board describes as an "unusual one-handed clock". Formerly an assembly building, The Moot Hall contains a tourist information centre on the ground floor, with an art gallery on the floor above. The prominent social thinker and art critic John Ruskin , who had links to Keswick,
2032-655: A series of defended towns or burhs , began the construction of a navy, and organised a militia system (the fyrd ), whereby half of his peasant army remained on active service at any one time. To maintain the burhs, and the standing army, he set up a taxation and conscription system known as the Burghal Hidage . In 892 a new Viking army, with 250 ships, established itself in Appledore, Kent and another army of 80 ships soon afterwards in Milton Regis . The army then launched
2159-532: A short period from 1040 to 1042 when Cnut's son Harthacnut ascended the English throne. Harald Hardrada , King of Norway, led an invasion of England in 1066 with 300 longships and 10,000 soldiers, attempting to seize the English throne during the succession dispute following the death of Edward the Confessor . He met initial success, defeating the outnumbered forces mustered by the earldoms of Northumbria and Mercia at
2286-411: A silver neck-ring and penannular brooch were uncovered. The historian Peter Hunter Blair believed that the success of the Viking raids and the "complete unpreparedness of Britain to meet such attacks" became major factors in the subsequent Viking invasions and colonisation of large parts of the British Isles. From 865, the Viking attitude towards the British Isles changed, as they began to see it as
2413-491: A slate roof. The church was extended in 1862, 1882 and 1889 by the parish's benefactors the Marshall family; the chancel windows, designed by Henry Holiday , installed in 1879, were taken down and reinstalled when the chancel was extended in 1889. St John's became a Grade II* listed building in 1951. Keswick's former parish church, St Kentigern's , at Crosthwaite, just outside the town, is also Grade II* listed. Dated to at least
2540-404: A small market town, many years famous for the copper works as appears from a charter of king Edward IV , and at present inhabited by miners". Earlier copper mining had been small in scale, but Elizabeth I , concerned for the defence of her kingdom, required large quantities of copper for the manufacture of weapons and the strengthening of warships. There was the additional advantage for her that
2667-406: A total of 332 children. By 1833 Keswick had twelve daily schools, including a new National School at High Hill. The new parish church of Keswick, St John's, started educational work in 1840 with a Sunday school which also educated infant boys, and later girls, on weekdays. A full-time boys' school opened in 1853. For older pupils, Keswick School, the free co-educational grammar school, successor to
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#17330862820632794-552: A triangle sheltering the town, reaching a maximum height of 931 m (3,054 ft) on Skiddaw itself. To the west of Portinscale, to the south-west of the village of Thornthwaite , is Whinlatter Forest Park and Grisedale Pike . To the east, beyond Castlerigg stone circle, is St John's in the Vale , at the foot of the Helvellyn range , which is popular with ramblers starting from Keswick. In 2010, Electricity North West, United Utilities,
2921-580: A year, however, and so Æthelred returned, but, in 1016, another Viking army invaded, this time under the control of the Danish King Cnut , Sweyn's son. After defeating Anglo-Saxon forces at the Battle of Assandun , Cnut became king of England, subsequently ruling over both the Danish and English kingdoms. Following Cnut's death in 1035, the two kingdoms were once more declared independent and remained so, apart from
3048-427: Is commemorated by a memorial at Friars' Crag . Erected in 1900 on Rawnsley's initiative, it is a Grade II listed structure. Until 1838, Keswick had no Anglican church within the town boundaries and was part of the widespread parish of Crosthwaite. The present parish church , St John's, was designed by Anthony Salvin and consecrated in 1838. It is geometrical in style, with pink castle-head ashlar sandstone and
3175-528: Is offered to visitors at reasonable prices. Keswick is the best centre from which to visit Lakeland. During the Second World War, students from St Katharine's College, Liverpool , and Roedean School , Sussex, were evacuated to Keswick when their own buildings were requisitioned for use as a hospital and a navy base respectively. Students were also brought to the safety of Keswick from Central Newcastle High School , Hunmanby Hall School, Yorkshire , and
3302-600: Is one of the few existing documents of Alfred's reign and survives in Old English in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge , Manuscript 383, and in a Latin compilation, known as Quadripartitus . The areas to the north and east became known as the Danelaw because it was under Viking political influence, whilst those areas to the south and west remained under Anglo-Saxon dominance. Alfred's government set about constructing
3429-539: Is one of the oldest continuously functioning cinemas in the country; it is equipped with digital technology and satellite receiving equipment to allow the live screening of plays, operas and ballet from the National Theatre , Royal Opera House and other venues. The town is the site of the Derwent Pencil Museum . One of the exhibits is what is claimed to be the world's largest coloured pencil. Fitz Park, on
3556-638: Is operated and managed by Carlisle Leisure Limited (CLL), and has a pool and fitness facilities, and offers lessons in canoeing. Norse activity in the British Isles Viking activity in the British Isles occurred during the Early Middle Ages , the 8th to the 11th centuries CE, when Scandinavians travelled to the British Isles to raid, conquer, settle and trade. They are generally referred to as Vikings , but some scholars debate whether
3683-659: Is the home of the Theatre by the Lake, opened in 1999. The theatre serves a dual purpose as the permanent home of a professional repertory company and a venue for visiting performers and festivals. It replaced the Century Theatre or "Blue Box", which had spent 25 years in semi-retirement on a permanent lakeside site in Keswick, after a career of similar length as a mobile theatre. The Alhambra cinema in St John Street, opened in 1913,
3810-417: The Battle of Fulford . Whilst basking in his victory and occupying Northumbria in preparation for the advance south, Harald's army was surprised by a similarly sized force led by King Harold Godwinson, which had managed to force march all the way there from London in a week. The invasion was repulsed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge , and Hardrada was killed along with most of his men. Whilst the Viking attempt
3937-550: The Castlerigg stone circle on the eastern fringe of the town, which has been dated to c. 3200 BC . Neolithic -era stone tools were unearthed inside the circle and in the centre of Keswick during the 19th century. The antiquary W. G. Collingwood , commenting in 1925 about finds in the area, wrote that they showed "Stone Age man was fairly at home in the Lake District". There is little evidence of sustained settlement in
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4064-710: The Celtic Britons and of the Gaels descended from the Celtic languages spoken by Iron Age inhabitants of Europe. In Ireland and parts of western Scotland , as well as in the Isle of Man , people spoke an early form of Celtic Gaelic known as Old Irish . In Cornwall , Cumbria , Wales , and south-west Scotland, the Celtic Brythonic languages were spoken (their modern descendants include Welsh and Cornish ). The Picts, who spoke
4191-400: The Derwent Pencil Museum remaining at the old site. At the beginning of the 21st century, more than 60 per cent of the population were employed in hotels, restaurants and distribution. A survey of retail premises in 2000 found that more than ten per cent were outdoor clothes shops, a similar proportion were cafés or restaurants, and more than eight per cent were gift shops. The age profile of
4318-624: The Jacobite rising of 1715 . In 1735 the Crown granted the income from the estates to support the Greenwich Hospital , London. Land to the south and west were part of Greenwich Hospital's forestry and farming estates until the 19th century. In 1925 the then owner, Sir John Randles, gave the National Trust 90 acres (36 ha) of land in this estate, including the foreshore woodland. Keswick became
4445-835: The Moot Hall ; a modern theatre, the Theatre by the Lake ; one of Britain's oldest surviving cinemas, the Alhambra; and the Keswick Museum and Art Gallery in the town's largest open space, Fitz Park . Among the town's annual events is the Keswick Convention , an Evangelical gathering attracting visitors from many countries. Keswick became widely known for its association with the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey . Together with their fellow Lake Poet William Wordsworth , based at Grasmere, 12 miles (19 kilometres) away, they made
4572-615: The Pictish language , lived in the area north of the Forth and Clyde rivers, which now constitutes a large portion of modern-day Scotland. Due to the scarcity of writing in Pictish, which survives only in Ogham , views differ as to whether Pictish was a Celtic language like those spoken further south, or perhaps even a non-Indo-European language like Basque . However, most inscriptions and place-names hint towards
4699-587: The River Dee , as well as in Sutherland , Caithness , and Orkney . The Scots , according to written sources, constituted a tribal group which had crossed to Britain from Dalriada in the north of Ireland during the late-fifth century. The northern Britons lived in the Old North , in parts of what have become southern Scotland and northern England, and, by the seventh or eighth centuries, these had apparently come under
4826-509: The River Derwent , are Celtic, some closely related to Welsh equivalents. Several Christian saints preached the Gospel in the north of England in the late 6th and early 7th centuries AD ; in Keswick and the surrounding area the most important figures were St Herbert of Derwentwater and his contemporary St Kentigern . The former, the pupil and friend of St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne , lived as
4953-723: The St. Brice's Day massacre . The news of the massacre reached King Sweyn Forkbeard in Denmark. It is believed that Sweyn's sister Gunhilde could have been among the victims, which prompted Sweyn to raid England the following year, when Exeter was burned down. Hampshire, Wiltshire, Wilton, and Salisbury also fell victim to the Viking revenge attack. Sweyn continued his raid in England and in 1004 his Viking army looted East Anglia, plundered Thetford and sacked Norwich, before he once again returned to Denmark. Further raids took place in 1006–1007 then Sweyn
5080-526: The 13th century, as "Kesewik". Scholars have generally considered the name to be from the Old English , meaning "farm where cheese is made", the word deriving from "cēse" (cheese) with a Scandinavian initial "k" and "wīc" (special place or dwelling), although not all academics agree. George Flom of the University of Illinois (1919) rejected that derivation on the grounds that a town in the heart of Viking-settled areas , as Keswick was, would not have been given
5207-513: The 14th century, it is built mainly in the Tudor-Gothic style and was expanded in 1523 and later restored in 1844 by George Gilbert Scott . The Quakers had an early meeting house in the town, replaced in 1715 by one at Underskiddaw. Protestant dissenters met at a private house from 1705 or before, moving to a chapel in Lake Road in the latter part of the 18th century. A Congregational chapel
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5334-423: The 170-mile (270-kilometre) return journey from Preston to Keswick. In addition to its growing importance as a tourist centre, Keswick developed a reputation for its manufacture of pencils during the 19th century. It had begun on a modest scale in about 1792, as a cottage industry , using graphite mined locally. This developed on more industrial lines in factories purpose-built by several companies. Pencil making
5461-414: The 1760s, but they were expensive. The ten-hour journey from Whitehaven to Penrith via Keswick cost 12 shillings (numerically equivalent to 60p), at a time when country labourers typically earned 10 shillings a week or less, and the annual income of even the most prosperous tenant farmers was rarely more than £200. Nonetheless, by the 19th century the number of tourists visiting Keswick during each season
5588-402: The 75- to 84-year-old bracket, which contains 9.6 per cent of Keswick's population compared with a national average of 5.5. Figures from the same census show that Keswick has fewer than average "large employers and higher managerial occupations" and more small employers and self-employed people. Long-term unemployment is considerably below the average for England. In medieval times the township
5715-627: The British Isles left remains of their material culture behind, which archaeologists have been able to excavate and interpret during the 20th and 21st centuries. Such Viking evidence in Britain consists primarily of Viking burials undertaken in Shetland, Orkney, the Western Isles, the Isle of Man, Ireland, and the north-west of England. Archaeologists James Graham-Campbell and Colleen E. Batey remarked that it
5842-539: The Crosthwaite Free Grammar School, opened at a site diagonally opposite Greta Bridge in 1898. In 1951 a new secondary modern school was built at Lairthwaite in Underskiddaw. Junior education is provided by St Herbert's School, which had a roll of 263 in 2013. At senior level, Keswick and Lairthwaite schools merged in 1980 as a single comprehensive secondary school, with the name Keswick School. It
5969-403: The Crown was entitled to royalties on metals extracted from English land. The experts in copper mining were German, and Elizabeth secured the services of Daniel Hechstetter of Augsburg , to whom she granted a licence to "search, dig, try, roast and melt all manner of mines and ores of gold, silver, copper and quicksilver " in the Keswick area and elsewhere. As well as copper, a new substance
6096-624: The Cumbrian League and the Cumbria Rugby Union Raging Bull Competition. The rugby club is involved in the organisation of the Keswick Half Marathon, usually held in the first week of May. Keswick Tennis Club has grass courts in upper Fitz Park, and also runs hard courts on Keswick's Community Sports Area in the lower park area. Keswick Cricket Club was established in the 1880s. Its principal team competes in
6223-452: The Dog and Gun public house in Lake Road are both Grade II listed 18th-century buildings. The following are the listed buildings in Keswick. The listings are graded: The Crosthwaite Free Grammar School, adjoining Crosthwaite churchyard, was an ancient institution, its date of foundation uncertain. In 1819 the parish of Crosthwaite had five or six schools in the town and the outlying areas, with
6350-646: The English in 939. However, when Edmund was killed in a brawl, his younger brother, Eadred of Wessex took over as king. Then in 947 the Northumbrians rejected Eadred and made the Norwegian Eric Bloodaxe (Eirik Haraldsson) their king. Eadred responded by invading and ravaging Northumbria. When the Saxons headed back south, Eric Bloodaxe's army caught up with some them at Castleford and made 'great slaughter '. Eadred threatened to destroy Northumbria in revenge, so
6477-512: The Keswick Film Festival and aim to 'celebrate local film making' by showing short films from local filmmakers. The winners from both the Under 19 and Open categories are awarded Osprey Awards. News and Star called it 'an opportunity for great directors to showcase their work'. In 2014, the Osprey Short Film Awards took place on 1 March. The winners were Animals , directed by Matthew Edwards, in
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#17330862820636604-434: The Keswick population is significantly higher than the English average. In 2011 children under 10 made up 7.6 per cent of the town's population, compared with 11.9 per cent for England as a whole. Between ages 10 and 20 the comparable figures are 10.2 and 12.1; and from ages 20 to 44, 25.9 as against 34.3. The percentage of Keswick's population aged 45 and upwards is above the national average, the largest difference being within
6731-877: The Khazar Kaghanate , but from the early 10th century onward it went via Volga Bulgaria and from there by caravan to Khwarazm , to the Samanid slave market in Central Asia and finally via Iran to the Abbasid Caliphate . This was one of the major routes of the viking slave trade, alongside the Black Sea slave trade . The slave trade between the Vikings and the Muslims in Central Asia is known to have functioned from at least between 786 and 1009, as large quantities of silver coins from
6858-610: The Lake District National Park Authority and the conservation charity Friends of the Lake District invested £100,000 to remove power lines and replace them with underground cables, to improve the quality of scenery in the vicinity. Climatically, Keswick is in the North West sector of the UK, which is characterised by cool summers, mild winters, and high monthly rainfalls throughout the year. Keswick's wettest months fall at
6985-409: The Lake District", and continued: Keswick's chief industry is to promote the contentment and happiness of its visitors. Its pleasant position provides at the outset a tonic atmosphere ... it is set in the most delightful part of a delightful district, described by Wordsworth as "the loveliest spot that ever man has found". There are numerous places of interest and fine shops, and good accommodation
7112-406: The Liverpool Orphanage. The creation of the Lake District National Park in 1951, with strict control over new development, prevented any expansion of the town beyond its pre-war borders. Keswick's population has remained stable at a little below 5,000 residents. The town's reliance on tourism increased in 2006 when Cumberland Pencils moved production from Keswick to Lillyhall, Workington , only
7239-404: The National Trust continued to acquire land locally. In the First World War Keswick lost many of its young men: the war memorial near Fitz Park commemorates 117 names, from a population at the time of less than 4,500. By the 1930s Keswick was firmly established as the main centre of tourism in Cumberland and Westmorland. An article in The Manchester Guardian in 1934 called it "the capital of
7366-440: The North Lancashire and Cumbria Cricket League, Premier Division. The second team plays in the Eden Valley Cricket League, 3rd Division, and the club also has junior under-11, under-13, and under-15 teams and a women's cricket team. Keswick Fitz Park Bowls Club was founded in 1882. In cycling, Keswick hosted the Keswick Bikes Borrowdale Cross of the North West League, second round, in September 2010 for junior riders, an event that
7493-406: The Northumbrians turned their back on Eric and acknowledged Eadred as their king. The Northumbrians then had another change of heart and accepted Olaf Sihtricsson as their ruler, only to have Eric Bloodaxe remove him and become king of the Northumbrians again. Then, in 954, Eric Bloodaxe was expelled for the second and final time by Eadred. Bloodaxe was the last Norse king of Northumbria. Under
7620-494: The Picts being Celtic in language and culture. Much of southern Britain had become the various kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England , where Anglo-Saxon migrants from continental Europe had settled during the fifth century CE, bringing with them their own Germanic language (known as Old English ), polytheistic religion and cultural practices. Many peoples of Britain and Ireland had already converted to Christianity from their older, pre-Christian polytheistic religions, including
7747-577: The Samanid Empire have been found in Scandinavia from these years. People taken captive by the Vikings during their raids in Western Europe were likely sold in Islamic Central Asia, a slave trade which was so lucrative that it may have contributed to the Viking raids in Western Europe, which was used by the vikings as a slave supply source for their slave trade with the Muslim world. Various hoards of treasure were buried in England at this time. Some of these may have been deposited by Anglo-Saxons attempting to hide their wealth from Viking raiders, and others by
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#17330862820637874-498: The Under 19 category and Little Chamonix , directed by Dom Bush, in the Open category. Keswick, Cumbria Keswick ( / ˈ k ɛ z ɪ k / KEZ -ik ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cumberland unitary authority area of Cumbria , England. Historically , until 1974, it was part of the county of Cumberland . It lies within the Lake District National Park , just north of Derwentwater and four miles (six kilometres) from Bassenthwaite Lake . The parish had
8001-502: The Viking demands and surrendered land to Viking settlers. In addition, many areas in eastern and northern England—including all but the northernmost parts of Northumbria —came under the direct rule of Viking leaders or their puppet kings. King Æthelred of Wessex , who had been leading the conflict against the Vikings, died in 871 and was succeeded on the throne of Wessex by his younger brother, Alfred . The Viking king of Northumbria, Halfdan Ragnarrson (Old English: Healfdene )—one of
8128-470: The Viking raiders as a way of protecting their looted treasure. One of these hoards, discovered in Croydon (historically part of Surrey , now in Greater London ) in 1862, contained 250 coins, three silver ingots, and part of a fourth as well as four pieces of hack silver in a linen bag. Archaeologists interpret this as loot collected by a member of the Viking army. By dating the artefacts, archaeologists estimated that this hoard had been buried in 872, when
8255-457: The Viking settlers continued under his daughter Æthelflæd , who married Æthelred, Ealdorman of Mercia , and also under her brother, King Edward the Elder (reigned 899–924). When Edward died in July 924, his son Æthelstan became king. In 927, he conquered the last remaining Viking kingdom, York, making him the first Anglo-Saxon ruler of the whole of England. In 934, he invaded Scotland and forced Constantine II to submit to him, but Æthelstan's rule
8382-454: The Westmorland League Division One, and it also has a reserve team which plays in Westmorland League Division Two, a female team which plays in the Cumbria League, juniors who compete in the under-16, under-14, under-12 and under-10 categories in the Penrith Junior Football League; there is a veteran team, which competes in the Cumbria League. Keswick Rugby Union Football Club, established in 1879, plays at Davidson Park, and has teams that play in
8509-426: The Yttergärde runestone, U 344 , which tells of Ulf of Borresta who received the danegeld three times, and the last one he received from Canute the Great . Canute sent home most of the Vikings who had helped him conquer England, but he kept a strong bodyguard, the Þingalið , and its members are also mentioned on several runestones. The vast majority of the runestones, 27, were raised in modern-day Sweden and 17 in
8636-419: The alterations made during the Georgian period still evident. The King's Arms Hotel, in the main market square, dates from the early 19th century; it is built from stuccoed stone, with Victorian shop windows on the ground floor. The Queen's Hotel in Main Street, a pebbledashed stone building dating from the late 18th century, was renamed "The Inn on the Square" in 2015. The Bank Tavern in Main Street and
8763-456: The approximately 30 Greece runestones and the 26 Ingvar runestones , of which the latter refer to a Viking expedition to the Middle East. They were engraved in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark . The Anglo-Saxon rulers paid large sums, Danegelds , to Vikings, who mostly came from Denmark and Sweden who arrived to the English shores during the 990s and the first decades of the 11th century. Some runestones relate of these Danegelds, such as
8890-417: The area during the Bronze Age , but from excavations of hill forts it is clear that there was some Iron Age occupation, circa 500 BC, although scholars are not agreed about how permanent it was. In Roman Britain Cumbria was the territory of the Carvetii . As the site of the western part of Hadrian's Wall , it was of strategic importance. The north of the county is rich in archaeological evidence from
9017-432: The area. The poet Thomas Gray published an account of a five-day stay in Keswick in 1769, in which he described the view of the town as "the vale of Elysium in all its verdure", and was lyrical about the beauties of the fells and the lake. His journal was widely read, and was, in Bott's phrase, "an effective public relations job for Keswick". Painters such as Thomas Smith of Derby and William Bellers also contributed to
9144-504: The army wintered in London. The coins themselves came from a wide range of different kingdoms, with Wessex, Mercian, and East Anglian examples found alongside foreign imports from Carolingian-dynasty Francia and from the Arab world. Not all such Viking hoards in England contain coins, however: for example, at Bowes Moor , Durham , 19 silver ingots were discovered, whilst at Orton Scar, Cumbria ,
9271-512: The bank of the River Greta, is home to the Keswick Museum and Art Gallery , a Victorian museum which features the Musical Stones of Skiddaw , Southey manuscripts, and a collection of sculptures and paintings of regional and wider importance, including works by Epstein , John Opie , Richard Westall and others. After extensive restoration and enlargement the museum reopened in 2014. In 2001
9398-547: The blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments. The first known account of a Viking raid in Anglo-Saxon England comes from 789, when three ships from Hordaland (in modern Norway) landed in the Isle of Portland on the southern coast of Wessex. When approached by Beaduheard , the royal reeve from Dorchester , whose job it was to identify all foreign merchants entering the kingdom, they killed him. There were almost certainly unrecorded earlier raids. In
9525-399: The boom of the mid-16th century had finished, the town's economy did not slide into ruin, and the population remained generally constant at a little under 1,000. The historian George Bott regards John Dalton (1709–63) and John Brown (1715–66) as the pioneers of tourism in the Lake District. Both wrote works praising the majesty of the scenery, and their enthusiasm prompted others to visit
9652-570: The borders of which met at Keswick. In 1181 Jocelyn of Furness wrote of a new church at Crosthwaite , Keswick, founded by Alice de Romilly, the Lady of Allerdale, a direct descendant of William II's original barons. In 1189, Richard I granted the rectory of Crosthwaite to the Cistercian order of Fountains Abbey . During the 13th century, agricultural land around the town was acquired by Fountains and Furness Abbeys. The latter, already prosperous from
9779-466: The confines of the parish boundary and at the 2011 Census had a total population of 5,243. Today, Keswick is administered by Keswick Town Council and Cumberland Council . Since 2024 Keswick has been in the Penrith and Solway parliamentary constituency, having previously been part of Copeland , and before that Workington and, earlier, Penrith and The Border . Keswick lies in north-western England, in
9906-469: The cricket ground in Fitz Park was named the most beautiful in England by Wisden Cricket Monthly . Greta Hall (see Lake Poets, below), is a Grade I listed building . The home of Coleridge in 1800–04 and Southey from 1803 until 1843, it later became part of Keswick School and is now in private ownership, partly divided into holiday flats. The three-storey house dates to the late 18th century and features
10033-512: The distinct polytheistic religion ( Anglo-Saxon paganism ) practiced by the Anglo-Saxons. In northern Britain, in the area roughly corresponding to modern-day Scotland, lived three distinct ethnic groups in their own respective kingdoms: the Picts , Scots , and Britons . The Pictish cultural group dominated the majority of Scotland, with major populations concentrated between the Firth of Forth and
10160-539: The eighth century, Viking raiders sacked several Christian monasteries in northern Britain, and over the next three centuries they launched increasingly large scale invasions and settled in many areas, especially in eastern Britain and Ireland, the islands north and west of Scotland and the Isle of Man . During the Early Medieval period, the islands of Ireland and Britain were each culturally, linguistically, and religiously divided among various peoples. The languages of
10287-460: The end of the year, the peak average of 189.3 mm (7.45 in) falling in October. Rain, sunshine and temperature figures are shown below. The registers of Crosthwaite Church stated that there were 238 interments in 1623, believed to have been something between a twelfth and a tenth of the whole population of the parish at that time. In the 1640s there was a sharp fall in population, brought on by
10414-466: The equivalent of writing about Stratford-upon-Avon without mentioning Shakespeare, so great was Rawnsley's impact on the town. He and his wife set up classes to teach metalwork and wood carving; these grew into the Keswick School of Industrial Art , which trained local craftsmen and women from 1894 until it closed in 1986. He revived the ancient May Day festival in the town, and was a leading figure in
10541-588: The establishment of Keswick School, Blencathra Sanatorium and the County Farm School. As co-founder of the National Trust , Rawnsley contributed to Keswick's continued growth as a tourist centre, with the acquisition by the Trust of many acres of popular scenic land around Derwentwater, beginning with Brandelhow Wood in 1902. Keswick's history throughout the 20th century was one of increasing reliance on tourism,
10668-507: The extraction of iron ore. Grant to Thomas de Derwentewatere, and his heirs, of a weekly market on Saturday at Kesewik in Derewentfelles, co. Cumberland, and of a yearly fair there on the vigil, the feast and the morrow of St. Mary Magdalene, and the two days following. Keswick was granted a charter for a market in 1276 by Edward I . This market has an uninterrupted history lasting for more than 700 years. The pattern of buildings around
10795-534: The fertile Eden Valley , well to the north of Keswick. With the Dissolution of the Monasteries , between 1536 and 1541, Furness and Fountains Abbeys were supplanted by new secular landlords for the farmers of Keswick and its neighbourhood. The buying and selling of sheep and wool were no longer centred on the great Abbeys, being handled locally by the new landowners and tenants. This enhanced Keswick's importance as
10922-525: The heart of the northern Lake District. The town is 31 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles (51 kilometres) southwest of Carlisle, 22 mi (35 km) northwest of Windermere and 14 + 1 ⁄ 4 mi (23 km) southeast of Cockermouth. Derwentwater , the lake southwest of the town, measures approximately 3 mi × 1 mi (5 km × 1.5 km) and is some 72 ft (22 m) deep. It contains several islands, including Derwent Isle, Lord's Island, Rampsholme Island and St Herbert's Island,
11049-522: The influx of visitors; engravings of their paintings of Cumberland scenery sold in large numbers, further enhancing the fame of the area. In 1800 the Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote, "It is no small advantage that for two-thirds of the year we are in complete retirement – the other third is alive & swarms with Tourists of all shapes & sizes." Coleridge had moved to Keswick in that year, and together with his fellow Lake Poets (see below )
11176-423: The interference of other elements of society. At the same time, it made them isolated and unprotected targets for attack by sea. Lo, it is nearly 350 years that we and our fathers have inhabited this most lovely land, and never before has such a terror appeared as we have now suffered from a pagan race, nor was it thought that such an inroad from the sea could be made. Behold the church of St Cuthbert spattered with
11303-406: The largest. Derwent Isle is the only island on the lake that is inhabited; it is run by the National Trust and open to visitors five days a year. The land between Keswick and the lake consists mainly of fields and areas of woodland, including Isthmus Wood, Cockshot Wood, Castlehead Wood and Horseclose and Great Wood, further to the south. The River Derwent flows from Derwentwater to Bassenthwaite ,
11430-544: The late ninth century, most probably in the Kingdom of Wessex during the reign of Alfred the Great . The Chronicle is, however, a biased source, acting as a piece of "wartime propaganda" written on behalf of the Anglo-Saxon forces against their Viking opponents, and, in many cases, greatly exaggerates the size of the Viking fleets and armies, thereby making any Anglo-Saxon victories against them seem more heroic. The Viking settlers in
11557-528: The leaders of the Viking Great Army (known to the Anglo-Saxons as the Great Heathen Army )—surrendered his lands to a second wave of Viking invaders in 876. In the next four years, Vikings gained further land in the kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia as well. King Alfred continued his conflict with the invading forces but was driven back into Somerset in the south-west of his kingdom in 878, where he
11684-479: The market square remained broadly the same from this period until at least the late 18th century, with houses – originally timber-framed – fronting the square, and sturdily enclosed gardens or yards at the back. According to local tradition these stout walls and the narrow entrances to the yards were for defence against marauding Scots . In the event it appears that the town escaped such attacks, Scottish raiders finding richer and more accessible targets at Carlisle and
11811-672: The most northerly of the major Cumbrian lakes. The Derwent and its tributary the Greta , which flows through Keswick, meet to the east of Portinscale. The source of the Greta is near Threlkeld , at the confluence of the River Glenderamackin and St John's Beck . Keswick is in the lee of the Skiddaw group, the oldest group of rocks in the Lake District. These fells were formed during the Ordovician period, 488 to 443 million years ago; they form
11938-470: The nearby village of Braithwaite . There are no other religious buildings in Keswick; Muslim worship was accommodated on Fridays in a room at the local council building in Main Street. This has since discontinued. Keswick's old inns and their successors include many listed buildings, mainly Grade II in designation. The George Hotel, stated to be the oldest inn in the town, dates to the 16th century, with
12065-483: The new Bessemer process of steelmaking brought a great demand for the rich iron ore from west Cumberland and the coking coal from Durham on the east side of the country. The CKP was built to enable ore and coal to be brought together at steel foundries in both counties. The line opened for goods traffic in 1864, and the following year it began to carry passengers. Fares varied, but holidaymakers could buy excursion tickets at discounted prices, such as six shillings for
12192-495: The northern island groups, those closest to Scandinavia. The Irish Annals provide us with accounts of much Viking activity during the 9th and 10th centuries. The England Runestones , concentrated in Sweden, give accounts of the voyages from the Viking perspective. The Viking raids that affected Anglo-Saxon England were primarily documented in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , a collection of annals initially written in
12319-742: The oldest Swedish provinces around lake Mälaren . Modern-day Denmark has no such runestones, but there is a runestone in Scania which mentions London . There is also a runestone in Norway and a Swedish one in Schleswig , Germany. Some Vikings, such as Guðvér, did not only attack England, but also Saxony , as reported by the Grinda Runestone Sö 166 in Södermanland: Slavery in the Muslim world provided
12446-509: The only way of dealing with these attackers was to pay them protection money , and so, in 991, they gave them £10,000. This fee did not prove to be enough, and, over the next decade, the English kingdom was forced to pay the Viking attackers increasingly large sums of money. Many English began to demand that a more hostile approach be taken against the Vikings, and so, on St Brice's Day in 1002, King Æthelred proclaimed that all Danes living in England would be executed. It would come to be known as
12573-479: The pencil industry being the second largest source of employment. The Cumberland Pencil Company, formed at the turn of the century, occupied a large factory near the River Greta on the road leading out of Keswick towards Cockermouth. The conservation movement continued to develop; Rawnsley led successful campaigns to save the medieval Greta and Portinscale bridges from replacement with ferro-concrete structures; and
12700-463: The period, but nothing is known that suggests any Roman habitation in the Keswick area, other than finds that point to the existence of one or more Roman highways passing the vicinity of the present-day town. Such nearby settlements as can be traced from the era of the Romans and the years after their departure seem to have been predominantly Celtic . Many local place names from the period, including that of
12827-403: The plague epidemic which affected Keswick, Carlisle, Cockermouth and Crosthwaite and other areas in 1645–47. In the 1801 census , the township of Keswick, including the town and surrounding hamlets, had a reported population of 1,350 people. The population grew at a steady rate, increasing to 1,683 in 1811, 1,901 in 1821, 2,159 in 1831, 2,442 in 1841, and 2,618 in 1851. In 1871 the township had
12954-413: The political control of Anglo-Saxons. By the mid-ninth century, Anglo-Saxon England comprised four separate and independent kingdoms: East Anglia , Wessex , Northumbria , and Mercia , the last of which was the strongest military power. Between half a million and a million people lived in England at this time, with society being rigidly hierarchical. The class system had a king and his ealdormen at
13081-655: The reign of Wessex King Edgar the Peaceful , England came to be further politically unified, with Edgar coming to be recognised as the king of all England by both Anglo-Saxon and Viking populations living in the country. However, in the reigns of his son Edward the Martyr , who was murdered in 978, and then Æthelred the Unready , the political strength of the English monarchy waned, and, in 980, Viking raiders from Scandinavia resumed attacks against England. The English government decided that
13208-483: The scenic beauty of the area widely known to readers in Britain and beyond. In the late 19th century and into the 20th, Keswick was the focus of several important initiatives by the growing conservation movement, often led by Hardwicke Rawnsley , vicar of the nearby Crosthwaite parish and co-founder of the National Trust , which has built up extensive holdings in the area. The town is first recorded in Edward I's charter of
13335-434: The second half of the 18th century, it was used to make pencils, for which Keswick became famous. The copper mines prospered for about seventy years, but by the early 17th century the industry was in decline. Demand for copper fell and the cost of extracting it was high. Graphite mining continued, and quarrying for slate began to grow in importance. Other small-scale industries grew up, such as tannery and weaving. Although
13462-471: The term Viking represented all Scandinavian settlers or just those who used violence. At the start of the early medieval period, Scandinavian kingdoms had developed trade links reaching as far as southern Europe and the Mediterranean, giving them access to foreign imports, such as silver, gold, bronze, and spices. These trade links also extended westwards into Ireland and Britain. In the last decade of
13589-442: The top, under whom ranked the thegns (or landholders), and then the various categories of agricultural workers below them. Beneath all of these was a class of slaves , who may have made up as much as a quarter of the population. The majority of the populace lived in the countryside, although a few large towns had developed, notably London and York , which became centres of royal and ecclesiastical administration. There were also
13716-476: The two peoples, and the Vikings would have been well informed about their targets. The next recorded attack against the Anglo-Saxons came the following year, in 793, when the monastery at Lindisfarne , an island off England's eastern coast, was sacked by a Viking raiding party on 8 June. The following year, they sacked the nearby Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey . In 795, they once again attacked, this time raiding Iona Abbey off Scotland's west coast. This monastery
13843-631: The viking raids in Western Europe could be sold to Moorish Spain via the Dublin slave trade or transported to Hedeby or Brännö and from there via the Volga trade route to Russia, where slaves and furs were sold to Muslim merchants in exchange for Arab silver dirham and silk , which have been found in Birka , Wollin and Dublin . Initially this trade route between Europe and the Abbasid Caliphate passed via
13970-514: The wool trade, wished to expand its sheep farming, and in 1208 bought large tracts of land from Alice de Romilly. She also negotiated with Fountains Abbey, to which she sold Derwent Island in Derwentwater, land at Watendlath , the mill at Crosthwaite and other land in Borrowdale . Keswick was at the hub of the monastic farms in the area, and Fountains based a steward in the town, where tenants paid their rents. Furness also enjoyed profitable rights to
14097-461: Was attacked again in 802 and 806, when 68 people living there were killed. After this devastation, the monastic community at Iona abandoned the site and fled to Kells in Ireland. In the first decade of the ninth century, Viking raiders began to attack coastal districts of Ireland. In 835, the first major Viking raid in southern England took place and was directed against the Isle of Sheppey and in
14224-589: Was built in 1858–59. The first Wesleyan chapel was built in 1814 in a small yard off Main Street at a cost of £331 10s; the present Methodist church is in Southey Street. Since 1928 Roman Catholics in Keswick have been served by Our Lady of the Lakes and St Charles in High Hill. A new Quaker meeting house opened in the town in 1994. An Eastern Orthodox church was inaugurated in 2007, holding services in Keswick and
14351-586: Was destroyed by the Vikings in the late 9th century. In the early 10th century the British Kingdom of Strathclyde seized the area, and it remained part of Strathclyde until about 1050, when Siward, Earl of Northumbria , conquered Cumbria. In 1092 William II of England , son of William the Conqueror , marched north and established the great baronies of Allerdale-below-Derwent, Allerdale-above-Derwent, and Greystoke,
14478-539: Was estimated at between 12,000 and 15,000. Some of the Keswick inns that catered for affluent visitors remain as hotels, including the Queen's, where Gray stayed. The construction of the railways in the mid-19th century made the Lake District, and Keswick in particular, more accessible to visitors of modest means. The original impetus for building the Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway (CKP) line came from heavy industry:
14605-540: Was forced to take refuge in the marshes of Athelney . Alfred regrouped his military forces and defeated the armies of the Viking monarch of East Anglia, Guthrum , at the Battle of Edington (May 878). Sometime after the Battle of Edington, a treaty was agreed that set out the lasting peace terms between the two kings that included the boundaries of each of their kingdoms. It is known as the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum . The treaty
14732-413: Was found, extracted and exploited: this was variously called wad, black lead, plumbago or black cauke, and is now known as graphite . Many uses were quickly discovered for the mineral: it reduced friction in machinery, made a heat-resistant glaze for crucibles, and when used to line moulds for cannonballs, resulted in rounder, smoother balls that could be fired further by English naval cannon . Later, from
14859-558: Was founded in 1896, and in 2019 continues to be published every Friday. In an article in The Observer in 1978, Christopher Brasher wrote that as long as the Reminder flourishes, "there will be one corner of these islands that is forever England." In 1883 Hardwicke Rawnsley was appointed vicar of Crosthwaite. In a study of Lake District towns in 1974, H. A. L. Rice commented that to write about Keswick without mentioning Rawnsley would be
14986-479: Was included in The Daily Telegraph ' s list of the top thirty comprehensives in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2014. The Local Education Authority for Keswick is Cumbria . The Mary Hewetson Cottage Hospital, founded in 1892, has fifteen beds and a minor injuries unit. It underwent a major rebuilding and upgrade in 2013. Keswick is home to Keswick Football Club. The principal team plays in
15113-421: Was on the Isle of Man where Norse archaeology was "remarkably rich in quality and quantity". However, as archaeologist Julian D. Richards commented, Scandinavians in Anglo-Saxon England "can be elusive to the archaeologist" because many of their houses and graves are indistinguishable from those of the other populations living in the country. For this reason, historian Peter Hunter Blair noted that, in Britain,
15240-477: Was paid over 10 000 pounds of silver to leave, and, in 1009–1012, Thorkell the Tall led a Viking invasion into England. In 1013, Sweyn Forkbeard returned to invade England with a large army, estimated to be 10000+ strong with over 300 longships, after a few months of claiming submission over England and a successful attack on London, Æthelred fled to Normandy, leading Sweyn to take the English throne. Sweyn died within
15367-523: Was possibly the strongest influence on the public esteem of Keswick and the Lake District. During the 18th century and into the 19th, turnpike trusts were established and major roads in Cumberland were greatly improved. With the Lake District now accessible by coach the area attracted well-off visitors, particularly at times of war in mainland Europe, which made the aristocratic Grand Tour impossible there. Regular public coach services were established in
15494-527: Was resented by the Scots and Vikings, and, in 937, they invaded England. Æthelstan defeated them at the Battle of Brunanburh , a victory which gave him great prestige both in the British Isles and on the Continent and led to the collapse of Viking power in northern Britain. After his death in 939, the Vikings seized back control of York, and it was not finally reconquered until 954. Edward's son Edmund became king of
15621-452: Was shaved at the back and left shaggy on the front, whilst the Anglo-Saxons typically wore their hair long. Viking armies captured York, the major city in the Kingdom of Northumbria , in 866. Counterattacks concluded in a decisive defeat for Anglo-Saxon forces at York on 21 March 867 , and the deaths of Northumbrian leaders Ælla and Osberht . Other Anglo-Saxon kings began to capitulate to
15748-698: Was supported by the British Cycling Federation . The same month, the town hosted an activity weekend for children, involving the juniors of the Brooke Steelers Wheelchair Basketball Team, whose senior players who were competing in a 135-mile (217-kilometre) race from Keswick to Penrith to raise money for children's cancer. Keswick is also home to Keswick Croquet Club, Keswick Archers, and Greta (Keswick) Junior Badminton Club, for children from eight to 16 years of age. The town leisure centre, Keswick Leisure Pool and Fitness Centre,
15875-440: Was the town's most important manufacturing industry by the mid-19th century, textiles and leather goods having declined. The Moot Hall was rebuilt in 1813, and the lower floor was used as a market house on Saturdays. Coal gas was supplied by a gas works from 1846; the Keswick library opened in 1849; a water works began operation in 1856; and Keswick police station opened in 1857. The local weekly newspaper, The Keswick Reminder
16002-480: Was unsuccessful, the near simultaneous Norman invasion was successful in the south at the Battle of Hastings . Hardrada's invasion and defeat has been described as the end of the Viking Age in Britain. Archaeologists James Graham-Campbell and Colleen E. Batey noted that there was a lack of historical sources discussing the earliest Viking encounters with the British Isles, which would have most probably been amongst
16129-535: Was within the manor of Castlerigg and Derwentwater. The earliest surviving official record of the town is the market charter of 1276 granted to the lord of the manor, Thomas de Derwentwater. The manor was granted by Alice de Romilly to Adam de Derwentwater before 1216, and subsequently passed to the Radclyffe family through marriage. The Derwentwater estate was forfeit to the Crown after the execution of James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater in 1716 for his involvement in
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