history of keswick...

Very little is known about the early history of Keswick. St Kentigern is known to have preached at Crosthwaite (to the east of the town centre) in AD 556. A Norman church was built on the spot in 1181, followed by a small settlement. The church apparently attracted unofficial markets following church services. This caused much contention until a market charter was granted in 1276 to a small cheese dairy not far away on the banks of the river Greta. This was the start of Keswick, whose name translates as ‘cheese farm'. As Keswick grew in size, the original settlement at Crosthwaite declined, leaving the church isolated.

Prosperity came to Keswick in the 16th century with the extraction of minerals from the surrounding fells. With no local mining expertise, skilled German miners were drafted in to work the copper and lead mines in the Newlands Valley, and a large smelting plant was established at Brigham (where the A66 road bridge crosses the river Greta).

The later discovery of wadd (graphite) at Seathwaite in Borrowdale gave rise to around 14 pencil manufacturing businesses in the area, one of which - the Cumberland Pencil Company - was operational in Keswick up to 2007.

Other Keswick industries included making bobbins for the cotton mills, quarrying (Borrowdale and Threlkeld) and woollen manufacture. The latter industry, based at Millbeck on the flanks of Skiddaw, produced large quantities of caps, blankets and flannels that were exported to slave plantations in the Americas. Peak output occurred in 1834; but changing technology and markets eventually forced closure of the mill in the late 19th century. Many of the buildings were subsequently pulled down or re-used for housing.

The building of the railway in 1864 to carry coke from Durham to the iron and steel works in Workington also brought the first tourists, inspired by the writings of the Lake Poets. This created a boom in Victorian buildings, with the development of the grand Keswick Hotel and a planned layout of terrace houses to the east of the town; all built out of Lakeland Green Slate - a desirable building stone prised from Quay Foot and other quarries in Borrowdale.