Wordsworth attended Hawkshead Grammar School from age 9 to 17. The School was started in 1585 to educate the sons of Protestant families after the Reformation. Lessons were in Latin and Greek with the aim of preparing boys for entrance to Cambridge. Boys boarded with local families in and around Hawkshead. Wordsworth and his brothers stayed in Colthouse, about half a mile away along the shore of Esthwaite Water. Wordsworth liked to walk around the lake and roam the fields before and after school, and it is easy to imagine that today as both the museum and the village of Hawkshead look much as they did in Wordsworth’s day.
The curator holds tours on the hour. Visitors can see the main school room on the ground floor, which still contains the wooden benches the boys sat on (and carved with their pocket knives), and displays of historic artefacts, some of which date from the sixteenth century. Please check our website for opening times and how to book.
A History and Guide to the Museum is available inside £2.50
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