Save Wordsworth House - sign our petition

We are calling on the National Trust to keep Wordsworth House and Garden, in Cockermouth, fully open to visitors.

Wordsworth’s boyhood home attracts around 20,000 visitors a year, which is economically important for attracting tourists to the area.

It’s also culturally vital to keep this part of Wordsworth's story alive and open to the public.

It’s unthinkable that the nation can lose another treasure from our rich literary past.

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We, the undersigned, urge you to preserve Wordsworth House and Garden in Cockermouth. This Grade I listed national treasure, the birthplace of poet William Wordsworth, is vital to our national heritage, education, and local economy.

Its uncertain future is of great concern. Any changes to its opening hours would be an incalculable loss, robbing future generations of a direct link to a pivotal era of English literature and a key contributor to Cumbrian tourism.

We implore the National Trust to exhaust all options to keep Wordsworth House and Garden accessible and inspiring for everyone.

We petition for Wordsworth House and Garden to remain fully operational and open to the public.

Will you sign?

Recent responses

  • Protect this small but important building for the public, it is after all the starting place of the whole Wordsworth story.

    Better signage to show it is open would help.

    Please keep it open over the winter so that the town doesn’t lose the volunteers who add so much at present.
  • Cockermouth saved this wonderful legacy before and l hope we do it again.
  • This a wonderful home and garden of huge historical significance right in the heart of a lovely Cumbrian town. Accessible and contributing to the national cultural heritage in an area out of the main Lake District.Please keep it fully operational.
  • This is really important to the town, and I fear that it will become another example of prioritizing the south.
  • A really valuable visit today, especially on life and gardens in the 18th century. It must stay open for future generations.
  • The National Trust should remember that the Cockermouth people purchased the property in the 1930’s before giving it to the Trust so they deserve it to be kept open. Visitors also bring trade and revenue into the town and support local businesses.
  • The Wordsworth family’s history in Cockermouth, Penrith and the Lakes is part of the fabric of Cumbria’s and the nation’s literary and cultural heritage. Wordsworth House is a focus for tourism to the benefit of the town and an important part of its history and identity.
  • Please keep Wordsworth house open.
  • I don’t believe we should lose such an important piece of our history both culturally and in this landscape, and I’m sorry to hear the National Trust are considering this is part of their cuts. At the same time I do believe entry to this house has been far too expensive and in the past has led to be and my friends and partner turning away from entry due to its cost.

    I hope this building continues to be open to the public as well as it gardens for many years into the future.
  • £16 is a LOT. If they cut the price maybe more people would go? Me and everyone I know has the same barrier to going there.
  • As a small town the house forms an important part of Cockermouth. It’s bring people to the town. Providing a Vital connection to our past as well as a connection to nature and poetry.
  • Wordsworth House is such a beautiful and important link with the local history of Cockermouth and of the Nation, I support this petition for keeping it open to visitors. Access and inclusion should be extended and developed, there is so much potential, and NOT closed down as proposed by Natioal Trust.
  • Please may the national trust do the accounts for the Lake District attractions as a whole unit not individual properties .It would help Cockermouth as our house prices are escalated by being near the Lake District. Whole Unit accounting would mean we could keep Wordsworth House so have advantages ,as well as disadvantages for our geographical position .