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Similar Lord's Island, Derwentwater, Cat Bells, Walla Crag, Lodore Falls | ||
Derwent Island House (often called Derwent Isle House) is an 18th-century Italianate house situated on Derwent Island, Derwent Water, Keswick, Cumbria, and in the ownership of the National Trust. It is leased as a private home, but is open to the public five days a year. The interior is classical in style.
Contents
Map of Derwent Island House, Keswick CA12 5DL, UK
History
Derwent Island was owned by Fountains Abbey but with the dissolution of the monasteries, it fell into the hands of the Crown and was sold off in 1569 to the Company of Mines Royal. In 1778 Joseph Pocklington bought the island (then known as Vicar's Island) and built a house, boathouse, fort and battery, and Druid circle folly on the land. Pocklington held regattas at which he fired off his cannon. Henry Marshall purchased the island in 1844 and employed architect Anthony Salvin to add a wing and a three-storey tower to Pocklington's house. The house was one of a number of residences of the Grindlay family during the 20th Century. The island was home to Reginald Robert Grindlay, son of Alfred Robert Grindlay CBE, the Lord Mayor of Coventry during WWII, automotive industrialist and distant relative of Capt. Robert Melville Grindlay, the founder of Grindlays Bank.
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was upset by the building, feeling it spoiled the view, and described Pocklington as "a native of Nottinghamshire, who played strange pranks by his buildings and plantations upon Vicar's Island, in Derwentwater, which his admiration, such as it was, of the country, and probably a wish to be a leader in a new fashion, had tempted him to purchase."