Cockermouth

Cockermouth is an ancient market town and civil parish in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England, and is so named because it is at the confluence of the River Cocker as it flows into the River Derwent. It has a population of 7,900. Historically a part of Cumberland, Cockermouth is situated outside the English Lake District on its northwest fringe. Much of the architectural core of the town remains unchanged since the basic medieval layout was filled in the 18th and 19th centuries. The town is prone to flooding, being flooded in 2005 and again in 2009.

Cockermouth's principal claim to fame is that William Wordsworth was born here, and spent the first years of his life at the school in Kirkgate (now the Church Hall). He certainly wrote about it in one of his poems.

"A little croft we owned - a plot of corn,
A garden stored with peas, and mint, and tyme,
And flowers for poises, oft on Sunday morn
Plucked while the church bells rang their earliest chime,
Can I forget our freaks at shearing time!
My hen's rich nest through long grass scarce espied;
The cowslip-gathering in June's dewy prime;
The swans that with white chests up reared in pride
Rushing and racing came to meet me at the waterside
From Guilt and Sorrow - XXIV

Wordsworth is not the only well known person to have come from the town or its environs. Both Fletcher Christian, the mutineer, of the Bounty, and John Dalton of atomic theory fame came from Cockermouth.
Our hotel -

River Cocker

Streets that were flooded in 2009 - water came nearly to the 2nd floor of these buildings. Re building is still going on today.


A pub stop behind our hotel!

Cheers!