Christmas fair for Rydal

A huge Cedar tree which fell in the grounds of Rydal Mount during Storm Arwen two years ago has been turned into beautiful and distinctive works of art.

Now visitors to the Rydal Christmas Fair will have the chance to buy the items created by wood craftsman Jonathan Leech. They include, candle holders, key fobs, and pens and pencils.

And as the Cedar tree was planted by William Wordsworth himself, who lived at Rydal Mount for most of his life, this conjures the image of a 21st century poet using a pencil from Wordsworth’s garden to create new work.

Jonathan Leech and his cedar crafts made from Wordsworth’s tree

The fair this year, on the weekend of December 2 and 3, is being shared with Rydal Hall, making this a really big event for the local community. Stalls featuring local crafts and gifts will be at each location, along with food and drink, Christmas music and – weather permitting – the Rydal Mount fire pit in the garden.

“We are really pleased to be working with our neighbours at Rydal Hall to create an opportunity for so many local craftspeople to display their work,” said Christopher Wordsworth Andrew, the great great great great grandson of the poet.

“And it’s wonderful that Jonathan Leech will be here with his wood craft. We gave him some huge slices of the fallen tree and we are thrilled with the results.  We are sure that  Wordsworth, an early environmentalist, would approve of this up-cycling!”

Other stallholders at Rydal Mount include Laura’s Handmade Wallhangings, Penni Simpson Glass, Tilly Mint Silver, Becky Read leathercraft, Juliet Cunningham bags and crafts, Oksana Walker Cosmetics, Ursula Hurst cards and prints, Liz Wakelin the Lakeland Sketchbook, Margison arts and gifts, and Joey’s Cafe from Wray Castle will be in attendance with their stall selling hot food. There will also be mulled wine and mince pies in the tea room.

The fair will run from 10-4 on the Saturday and Sunday, and tickets – to cover attendance at both locations – can be bought in advance for just £5 including free parking here: https://www.rydalmount.co.uk/whats-on/

Autumn treat for poetry lovers

Wordsworths read Wordsworth

As autumn closes down the days and the daylight, there’s a special treat in store for poetry lovers at Rydal Mount, the former home of William Wordsworth.

Descendants of the poet will gather in the drawing room, where Wordsworth wrote many of his great works, and read poems to a select audience.

It’s an exclusive event as there’s limited space, but those attending will hear some of the most beautiful poetry ever written, read by four generations of the Wordsworth family. They will also have a special guided tour of the house.

Christopher Wordsworth Andrew, the great great great great grandson of William, will be among them. His readings have been appreciated by intimate audiences for a number of years. He also set up an online project, Wordsworth250 , where celebrity fans of William Wordsworth upload their own readings of the Romantic poems.

The date is Friday November 3 at 4pm. Tickets are available now, and include a glass of wine and a slice of Grasmere gingerbread. It promises to be one of the most atmospheric events of the season. Book here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wordsworths-read-wordsworth-tickets-725658974527

September 1819 by William Wordsworth

Departing summer hath assumed

An aspect tenderly illumed,

The gentlest look of spring;

That calls from yonder leafy shade

Unfaded, yet prepared to fade,

A timely carolling.

Christmas fair with Rydal Hall

The Christmas Fair this year is going to be bigger and better than ever. We have teamed up with our neighbours at Rydal Hall to create the Rydal Christmas Fair, a two-day festive treat at both locations.

A combined ticket for the weekend event on December 2 and 3 will be on sale shortly, and there’s still some space for stallholders, indoors at the Hall and outdoors here at the Mount. We already have a fantastic collection of talented artists and craftspeople lined up who will be here selling perfect gifts for Christmas.

Among them will be Jonathan Leech who is creating exquisite wooden dishes, bowls, pens and candle holders carved from the cedar tree that fell in our garden during the storms a few years ago.

Visitors will be treated to music from our harpist friends and a brass band, a small choir singing carols and festive songs. The tea shops at both venues will be open, with mulled wine on offer, and while Rydal Mount has Joey’s Cafe serving vegetable stew and other goodies, there will be bratwurst for sale outside the bar at Rydal Hall.The fire pits will be lit at the Mount near the garden gazebo stalls.

Tickets will be £5 in advance, £6 on the day, on sale shortly from this website, and this includes free parking.

Christopher Wordsworth, the great great great great grandson of the poet William Wordsworth, who lived at Rydal Mount, said: “We are delighted to be sharing a big festive occasion with our lovely neighbours at Rydal Hall. It will be a weekend of celebration for the whole village.”

If you’d like to book a stall please email marketing@rydalhall.org

A poem from our poet in residence

Kerry Derbyshire was our poet in residence in August, researching and writing and running workshops for poets. Here’s one of her works inspired by the spirit of Wordsworth and this house. We will publish more in due course.

The Dried Hydrangeas

In the forest-green room
on threadbare chairs they sit still
as nervous guests petals clustered
dry as old lace pale as mist swirling
Nab Scar beyond the leaded window.
An August soirée of neighbours
gather around the polished dining table
set with Staffordshire ware.
Dusk draws on.
Candles flicker over lamb
and fresh-pulled peas the echo
of Harebell summers white foxglove seeds
harvested beneath a saffron sky
how it can make a heart linger to be out of doors
on evenings like this
the contre ton with Coleridge
over an early draft of The Prelude
and weren’t Mr Simpson’s gooseberries
the best this year the steady echo
of death along the coffin route hydrangeas
keeping their seats safe. Kerry Darbishire

The poet in residence

Poet Kerry Darbishire was Resident here during August. Here she reflects on what she calls “a rare and wonderful experience”.

To sit in the house or garden with such deep history, surrounded by the lives of William, Mary and Dorothy, was a great privilege.

I enjoyed looking up how Dorothy’s days compared with mine during the same month of August: hers 1800, mine 2023. My note from first day: Arrived to a quiet misty morning, garden fresh with last night’s rain. Although D’s journal entries were hand-written, they would be very similar as I don’t think much has changed here in regard to: the views, perhaps more obscured by the growing trees, the many visitors wandering the garden; as they used to, the ever-changing skies; borders and plants tended by Helen and Chris, keeping them as Wm planned all those years ago.

Company in the garden

I met and chatted to many of the visitors, so keen, who came from all over the world to see where the great poet lived his final years(1813-1850). How sunlight filled the living room full of books, collections of paintings, personal items and furniture belonging to the Wordsworth family. All fascinating and beautifully cared for. Everyone and their dogs are welcomed here, and can enjoy a lovely cuppa and cake in the café as I did, where I met Pauline, Caitlin and Jo. I’ve made many notes and have begun to write poems inspired by this special place. Here is a first stanza of four altogether, from a poem I’m working on:

Last night a veil of mist stole fells, stars and all
of Windermere. This distant view Wordsworth loved
and as a boy at dusk would stand on the reedy shore
to mimic owls, hands cupped, his loud halloos
upon the air.

I also wanted to share this experience with other poets, so I held two afternoon
workshops. There were 12 attended in all, and fortunately the days were sunny and Leo very kindly set up a table and chairs under a canopy in the garden. What bliss it was! Poets returning from the house and garden and writing down their responses. (It would be wonderful to celebrate with some of these poems and produce a chapbook.)

My final day as poet-in-residence came and I’ll be sad to leave the team running everything – the house, garden, the kestrel circling. But I take with me an experience I will treasure always and enough material to eventually write into poems.

I would like to thank Christopher Wordsworth for this opportunity to spend time writing in the family house and gardens of Rydal Mount. Leo for his help with writing spaces and setting up everything I needed for the workshops. Also thank you to Pauline and everyone in the café for delicious coffee and soup, and to Helen and Chris for their huge knowledge of the garden and lovely chats throughout these August days.

A spellbinding afternoon

Our Poet in Residence, Kerry Darbishire, is running a series of workshops here this month. Here Rebecca Robinson reflects on an afternoon spent creatively here at Rydal Mount.

CARS rumble along the A591 from Ambleside to Keswick, visitors buzz in and around Rydal mount like honeybees. A jet plane cuts the still summer air of late afternoon, roaring low overhead. 

‘The world is too much with us

 Late and soon.’(*) 

But there’s an invitation to escape into an enchanted world. Follow the narrow road past the church, take the path into a quintessential English garden. Fill your cup of tea in the cafe garden, where a tiny field-mouse darts in and out for crumbs and a visitor brings the first ripe apple to the table. Join us, under the canopy for an afternoon immersion in poetry.

Rydal Mount is a hidden oasis between the towns of Ambleside and Grasmere. Open to the public, the country cottage belies a landmark status long before – look closely and the 9th century Norse mound on the grass in front of the house attests. The house was made famous as home to poet William Wordsworth, his wife Mary and his sister Dorothy in the 1800s (of Dorothy, some may say, his equally creative sister author of her own Journals). It’s now a living shrine to the poet and the Romantic movement, a destination for well-read tourists but also for literary scholars of the modern age. 

And in the corner of this English garden, something is quietly being created.

Kerry Derbyshire, Poet in Residence at Rydal Mount for the month of August, entreats us to stop and stay a while. Kerry is an award winning poet and author (her works include Jardiniere (2023) and A lift of wings (2014) and like Wordsworth she was born and raised a Cumbrian. 

Kerry’s August residency at Rydal Mount involves living in the footsteps of the former Laureate, taking inspiration from his home, works and garden, and drawing inspiration for her next work. To the delight of the small group of writers gathered in the garden today, she’s also sharing her experience with writers – and those of us who might only aspire to writing – in an open invitation to spend a spellbinding afternoon focused on poetry: reading, reflecting and writing in the charmed setting. 

We take our inspiration from Wordsworth, Kerry’s own works and our experience of the natural world around us, travelling in our minds to the Cumbria of Wordsworth’s childhood and re-discovering the everyday magic in Nature all around us. Every field mouse, glow-worm and sleeping flower on the fell has our Poet host tutoring and encouraging us to put pen to paper inspired by the deep history of this place.

The afternoon session lasted three relaxed hours and was completely free for the lucky attendees. It  will be repeated on Wednesday August 16th.

Please email  kerrydarbishire@gmail.com for more details.

*The World Is Too Much With Us : William Wordsworth

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
  Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
  Little we see in Nature that is ours;
  We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
  This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
  The winds that will be howling at all hours,
  And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
  For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
  It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be
  A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
  So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
  Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
  Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
  Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

Marry in the most iconic setting

All you need to know about having your wedding here at Rydal Mount: click this link….

https://www.weddingsbyannabel.co.uk/rydal-mount

Workshops for poets this summer at Rydal Mount

Would you like to come and spend a summer afternoon writing in William Wordsworth’s home? Our poet in residence Kerry Darbishire will be running some poetry workshops here during the summer.

Two workshop/discussion days will be held during the first three weeks of August. Kerry says:
“This is an initial plan, to see how many might be interested. I want to give as many as I can the chance to come along. I will send out more details to those who wish to join in.”

Prospective dates are:
1 st workshop day: August: Tuesday 8th or Wednesday 9th or Thursday10 th
2nd workshop day: Tuesday 15th or Wednesday 16th or Thursday 17th .
Both are free, to be held between 2pm and 5pm.

If you would like to join in, please let Kerry know (via the email address below)which of these days is best for you. These will be gatherings to read and discuss some poems by William Wordsworth and from Dorothy’s Journal, experiencing their time living here. Sessions start at 2pm but if you want lunch in the café first, please do come earlier.

Kerry says: “We will wander the garden and house and write in response to anything we discover.
Please bring a notebook and pen and if you have a favourite Wordsworth poem, or a Dorothy quote, please bring it along to discuss.”

Kerry hopes to hold two follow-up evening readings to share what’s been written during
the two sessions, either on the same day as the workshops or sometime later to give writers time to edit poems written. “Though I’m aware of how far some of you will have to travel,” says Kerry. “Poems could be emailed to me. We will be able to invite an audience to hear our readings.
Depending on what emerges from our notepads, I’m hoping to produce pamphlet of the poems written during this time for Rydal Mount.”

For more information and directions, Rydal Mount Website:
http://www.rydalmount.co.uk

“Rydal Mount is a beautiful place and it would be lovely to meet all who are interested in poetry and see what comes out of our writings.”
Please email kerrydarbishire@gmail.com for more details.

Shakespeare in Wordsworth’s garden

Here’s something that William Wordsworth would enjoy heartily! Shakespeare is coming to his garden, and you’re all invited to come along.

The Duke’s Theatre Company is famous for taking classical drama, and some new work, to open air venues around the country, and they are coming to Rydal Mount on Saturday August 5 with their vivacious production of Twelfth Night.

Whether you’re an audience member in 2023 or back in 1602, you could be forgiven for thinking that this was going to be the darkest of  tragedies. What could be more nightmarish than to lose your twin sibling in a furious storm at sea and to think they’d died?
 
In fact, a romantic comedy unfolds with a madcap farce at its heart. The  broadest of broad humour (poor Malvolio tricked into absurdity) mixes with moments of unbearable pathos (listen out for Sir Anthony  Aguecheek’s wistful “I was adored once, too”).

 
 “We don’t want to give any more away, even though we’re so excited to be presenting our new  production,” said their spokesman. “ Suffice to say it all works out in the end, in a way that only Shakespeare would carry off.
 
 “What can you expect from a Duke’s Theatre Company performance? The full  text in all its glory; innovative production design to support the unparalleled energy of our wonderful cast; original music so that  Shakespeare’s songs are heard in a whole new way – and all we ask is  that you come prepared for a wonderful time.”

So do come and join us. Book your tickets here: https://www.thedukestheatrecompany.co.uk/event-details/ambleside-rydal-mount-7-00pm