The Old Rectory/Allan Bank - The Wordsworth Way Mystery Cache
The Old Rectory/Allan Bank - The Wordsworth Way
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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A short gradual uphill stroll.
In 1802 William married his childhood companion Mary Hutchinson, and the first three of their five children were born. Thomas de Quincey was a permanent guest, and in 1808 as Dove Cottage became inadequate, they moved to Allan Bank in Grasmere, a large house that William had condemned as an eyesore when it was being built. They lived here for two years, with poet and friend Coleridge, during which time they had two more children, Catherine and William, but they moved on because the chimneys smoked too much, and they fell out with the landlord.
They then moved to the Old Rectory, opposite St Oswald's Church, Grasmere, a cold and damp house where his two youngest children died. William Wordsworth planted eight of the yew trees in the churchyard, and one of them marks the grave of he and his wife Mary. Nearby are buried his sister Dorothy, his children Dora, William, Thomas and Catherine, Mary's sister Sara Hutchinson, and other members of the family. There is also the grave of Hartley Coleridge, eldest son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. A leaflet lists all the graves in the area, and describes the relationship of the people to William Wordsworth. In 1850 William caught a cold on a country walk, and he died on 23 April, St George's day, 80 years after his birth. He and Mary who died 9 years later have a simple tombstone in the churchyard, now one of the most visited literary shrines in the world. William Wordsworth wrote some 70,000 lines of verse, 40,000 lines more than any other poet.
Dorothy and William Wordsworth’s favourite walk whilst at Dove Cottage took them, past the house at Allan Bank, into Easdale below Helm Crag. Dorothy described the scene as a valley of streams and islands with that great waterfall (Sour Milk Gill) at the head and lesser falls in different parts of the mountains coming down to these rivers.
The co-ordinates on this listing will take you to St Oswald’s Churchyard:
Gordon Graham Wordsworth lived ABCD - EFGH
Allan Bank Cache is hidden at - N54 27.CCB - W 003 01.B(A+E)(F-G).
This series charts some of the milestones in the life of the poet William Wordsworth, the main Biography appearing on ‘The Daffodils’ cache listing only.
Caches in this series:
The Daffodils - The Wordsworth Way
W.W. Memorial/Mire House - The Wordsworth Way
The Old School/Blelham Tarn - The Wordsworth Way
Dove Cottage/Rock of Names - The Wordsworth Way
The Old Rectory/Allan Bank - The Wordsworth Way
The Coffin Trail/Rydal Mount - The Wordsworth Way
Dora’s Field - The Wordsworth Way
Grisedale Tarn - The Wordsworth Way
Diana's Looking Glass - The Wordsworth Way
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Hc gur gerr
!!