wordsworth house & gardens, small visitor attraction of the year 2009...

The house was built in 1745 and John Wordsworth, father of William and 4 siblings, moved in 1766. A townhouse garden it is the only northern Georgian town garden in existence. Despite the house being on the main street it is an oasis of peace and tranquillity protected by high stone walls. At the far end a terrace looks down to the River Derwent and is much as it must have been when the Wordsworth children played here. The privet and the hawthorn provide shelter for the birds. Snowdrops and bluebells have been replanted and there are hellebores, geraniums, foxgloves, yellow poppies and roses.