#165: Wool, Wine & Wordsworth – Hawkshead and its remarkable Grammar School

…in which we take a midsummer stroll through Hawkshead to learn about the village's deep history and its tiny school that had a big impact – not just locally, but on the world stage.

Accompanied by Joanne Heather, director of the Hawkshead Grammar School Foundation, we set out from the meadows above the village to explore Hawkshead’s long history – its Norse roots, the chapelry that served Furness Abbey, and the wool trade that put the market town on the map, long before neighbouring Ambleside, Coniston and Windermere.

Visiting the church of St Michael & All Angels, Joanne introduces us to the Sandys family of Graythwaite, and Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York during the reign of Elizabeth I, who founded the school to train new generations of clergy.

Arriving at the Grammar School, museum assistant manager Hollie Barker talks us through life at the school: the hours of Latin and scripture; the cock fights and sword fights; the strict rules that allowed boys (no girls) to smoke and drink, but never gamble.

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n the confines of the school library, we learn about old boy and London vintner Daniel Rawlinson – great grandson of Daniel Hechstetter, the patriarch of Keswick mining – who founded the school's collection of priceless books, which includes a guide to dissecting elephants.

Finally, we turn our attention to the school’s most famous alumnus, William Wordsworth, enrolled into the school after his mother’s death, who excelled at maths and who led a seemingly idyllic school life ’midst the family trauma, with days off spent ice skating, visiting the Duddon sands and eating strawberries and cream.

• Hawkshead Grammar School Museum is open 1 April–31 October, Thursday–Monday 11am–4pm during term time, and daily 11am–4pm during school holidays. 2026 exhibitions are ‘Friends Before Fame’, about Wordsworth’s school friends, and ‘America 250’, highlighting the school’s links with America.

• More information about the museum and library conservation project can be found on Bloomberg Connects and at www.hawksheadgrammar.org.uk. New volunteers are always welcome; contact Joanne at hgsmuseum@gmail.com.

• The museum is hosting a series of evening talks, usually on the last Monday of the month. The talk on Monday 29 June is Mark Hatton (see Countrystrides past) discussing the history of Coniston Copper Mines and its links to the school. For details and tickets go to EventBrite and search for ‘A Talk at the School’, or see www.hawksheadgrammar.org.uk.

The main schoolroom at Hawkshead Grammar School. Image © Mark Richards.

Our guests for the podcast: Hollie Barker (left) and Joanne Heather.

Hawkshead Grammar School in c.1880, after the white render had been removed from the church (as mentioned by Wordsworth in The Prelude) and just before the windows were replaced with the sandstone frames seen today. Photo: © Cumbria Image Bank.

Interior of the main classroom, with original engraved benches around the edges of the room, inglenook fireplace at the front and Wordsworth script around the walls – added in the 1800s to try and attract pupils. Photo © Hawkshead Grammar School.

One of the library’s treasures: How to dissect an elephant, from Patrick Blair’s 1710 Philosophical Transactions.

Inscription in a Rawlinson donation, The Sphere of Marcus Manilius, an astronomy text translated into English by the donor.

Exterior of the school today. Photo © Hawkshead Grammar School.