By Mark Campbell
So many creative people have found inspiration in the Lake District over the centuries that the county is rich with tributes to what has gone before, and legacies in the form of contemporary arts. Authors, artists, poets, thinkers, pioneers, musicians, sculptors are honoured all around you. We've gathered some of the most famous names and where you can visit to learn more.
John Ruskin
Celebrating people who left a cultural legacy in Cumbria, look to Brantwood, on the shores of Coniston. This was the home of John Ruskin, a lover of art and architecture and a radical thinker.
Brantwood House overlooks Coniston Water
He is credited with inspiring the founders of the National Health Service, the National Trust and public libraries. Brantwood House is a registered museum and the nine rooms Ruskin used are open to the public. Furthermore, the Severn Studio presents quality art and craft exhibitions all year round.
William Wordsworth
Treasured poet William Wordsworth, he of the golden daffodils seen fluttering and dancing in the Lake District breeze, was born in Cockermouth and later lived in Grasmere.
Cockermouth has Wordsworth House to remember him by and Grasmere has Dove Cottage. An extensive collection of original letters, journals and poems in the Wordsworth Museum next door to Dove Cottage tells his life story.
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- Experience life in the 1770s at Wordsworth House and Garden
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- Daffodils at Dove Cottage in Grasmere
To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Wordsworth in 2020, the Wordsworth Trust created a new attraction, ‘Reimagining Wordsworth’ to celebrate the poet’s life and times.
An extensive collection of original letters, journals and poems in the Wordsworth Museum next door to Dove Cottage tells his life story
Alfred Heaton Cooper & William Heaton Cooper
The Heaton Cooper Studio in Grasmere is a gallery containing the works of landscape painters Alfred Heaton Cooper and his son William Heaton Cooper. Their paintings and books have influenced the way the Lake District landscape has been viewed. There is a changing programme of exhibitions throughout the year, and the studio exhibits paintings, prints, sculpture and books.
