visit cockermouth...

This handsome Georgian town on the edge of the Lake District has been identified as one of 51 ‘gem towns' in Britain, recommended for preservation as part of our national heritage.

This attractive town with its broad, tree-lined main thoroughfare boasts a healthy mix of service shops (butchers, bakers, ironmongers, etc), alongside cafes, pubs and

high quality art and craft galleries. Good roads provide fast and easy access to Bassenthwaite Lake and Keswick, and to Maryport and the sandy coastline towards Allonby. Cockermouth was the birthplace and childhood home of William Wordsworth, his former home now imaginatively presented to the visitor.

explore cockermouth

History & heritage

Historically, Cockermouth had a thriving industrial base, with several mills producing woollen, linen and cotton goods.

history
heritage

Art & culture

This attractive town with its broad, tree-lined main thoroughfare boasts a healthy mix of high quality art and craft galleries.

art & culture

Natural environment

Around the town, the rolling landscape is divided by hedgerows, and dotted with solitary farmhouses and pockets of attractive villages.

natural environment

What's on

A full events listing of what's on in and around Cockermouth for you to ejnoy.

local events

cockermouth quirky facts...

Earl Mayo

The marble statue on Main Street is that of Earl Mayo (Richard Southwell Bourke) - Cockermouth's MP for 10 years (1857-1867). He was appointed Viceroy to India in 1869, but three years later was stabbed to death in the Andaman Islands (Indian Ocean) by a convict serving time in the penal colony there.

Coleridge

Coleridge named his son (Derwent) after one of the rivers that flow through Cockermouth. He also based his famous poem, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' on the adventures of Fletcher Christian (see ‘History' section).