Another lovely morning arrived and as I intended visiting three different places that day, including one where I would probably spend some considerable time, I was on the road soon after 10am. Now I've no doubt that everyone has heard of a traffic jam but as I drove round the country lanes I was met by something completely different - a 'sheep jam'. Rounding a bend I came face to face with a herd of blue-tinged sheep spread across the road and heading towards me, followed by a guy with a stick who was herding them along. This was a great opportunity for a photo so grabbing the camera from the passenger seat I took a shot through the front windscreen. Some of the sheep were rather skittish and were jumping about all over the place but they passed by without any of them hitting the van and I was free to continue my journey.
My first stop of the day was at the Senhouse Roman Museum on the cliff top in Maryport. The museum, which is adjacent to the remains of an ancient Roman fort, was built in 1885 by the Navy, originally to be used through the years as a Naval Artillery Reserve drill hall, then in 1966 military cuts ended its life as a Naval building but it was saved from demolition by the efforts of the Maryport people.
The collection of artefacts from the Roman fort was started in 1570 by John Senhouse, Lord of the Manor of Ellenborough, and these were originally kept within the walls of Netherhall, the family mansion. In the 18th century much of the Roman fort was plundered to provide stone for the building of Maryport town and during that time any carved stonework discovered was preserved and recorded. Fast forward through the generations and after the Senhouse family left Netherhall in 1962 the building began to deteriorate, then in 1965 concerns for the collection of artefacts led Roger Senhouse and someone named Brian Ashmore to recover some 125 items from the mansion's ruins and relocate them to the safety of the coach house. The determination of Brian Ashmore and Joe Scott Plummer, heir to the Senhouse estate, finally led to the collection being housed in the old Naval drill hall on the cliff top and this was eventually opened to the public as a museum in 1990.
Now I have to confess that although I find local history in my home area quite fascinating I've never really had any interest in history in general - I hated it at school - so I was really only going to this place for any possible photo opportunities, not because I wanted to learn about the Romans in Maryport. The building looked quite attractive on the outside and inside the rooms were bright and well set out; it wasn't a big place so it didn't take me long to look round, then back outside I climbed to the top of the observation tower to see the views over Maryport and its surroundings, though unfortunately the sun was in the wrong direction for photos overlooking the town.
Back at ground level I retrieved the dogs from the van and took them for a short walk along the cliff top where I was able to get a decent shot looking towards the harbour and marina. While I was there I got chatting to a lady who said she lived in one of the new properties by the harbour and it turned out that she had previously lived less than seven miles from my own home on a road I've often travelled along - sometimes it really is a small world.
Before I left Maryport for the next town on my itinerary there was one more place I wanted to see - Fleming Square not far from the museum, in fact I'd passed part of it on my way there earlier on. I'd previously seen a picture of it on the internet and with its coloured houses and four diagonal paths converging on a central war memorial it looked like quite an attractive place.
It didn't take many minutes to get photos from all four corners of the square, and though a few less cars in the shots would have been better I was happy with the results so I hopped back in the van, drove back to the main road through Maryport and set off on the next part of my day.
Wordsworth House, an attractive Georgian building built in 1745 and situated on the main road running through Cockermouth, is the birthplace of William Wordsworth, his sister Dorothy and their three brothers. William was born in 1770 and Dorothy in 1771 followed by two younger brothers - an older brother Richard had previously been born there in 1768. Their mother died when William was only eight years old and he subsequently spent most of his following childhood years with relatives in Penrith; his father died in Wordsworth House in 1783 and by 1784 all the children had finally left the house to be cared for by relatives.
The house remained as a private dwelling owned by several different families throughout the years into the 1930s, then in 1937, after a failed attempt by Cockermouth library to raise enough money to buy it, the local bus company bought it with the intention of demolishing it to build a bus station. After much national press and radio attention enough money was donated for the town to buy the house back and it was handed over to the National Trust in 1938, opening as a Wordsworth memorial in 1939 and also becoming a Grade I listed building. Fast forward to the present day and the house is now furnished and presented as it would have been at the time the Wordsworth family lived there in the 1700s.
Although it was interesting seeing all the different rooms I found many of them, especially some of the bedrooms, were small and quite dark. In the whole of the house the only genuine item belonging to the Wordsworth family was William's father's desk, everything else was period or replica, and because William himself had only lived there until he was eight and had never actually written anything there I felt that the house could have belonged to anyone. However, it was the garden which interested me more and by the time I'd looked round the house and gone outside the sun was shining again and I managed to get some really nice photos.
As I walked back to the van I pondered on my visit to the Wordsworth House. With a small 'library' of modern books in one of the basement rooms and a modern exhibition room upstairs it seemed to be a bit of a mish-mash of styles, and unless I'd missed something there was very little mention of any of William's actual writing in later life. It had only taken me 45 minutes to go round the whole house and garden so I was glad I'm an NT member as personally I don't think the place is worth the £8.30 entrance fee. Would I go there again? Maybe, but only for the garden.
