Allan Bank

Allan Bank
Coordinates	54°27′36″N 3°1′46″W / 54.46000°N 3.02944°W / 54.46000; -3.02944
Built	1805
Owner	National Trust
Listed Building – Grade II*
Location of Allan Bank in Cumbria

54°27′36″N 3°1′46″W / 54.46000°N 3.02944°W / 54.46000; -3.02944 Allan Bank is a grade II

Construction

Allan Bank is designed in a "bleakly Italianate" style according to

Initially Wordsworth, who was then living less than a mile away in Dove Cottage, was outraged by the building of Allan Bank. In a letter to Richard Sharp he called it a "temple of abomination", and told him that "the house will stare you in the face from every part of the Vale [of Grasmere] and entirely destroy its character of simplicity and seclusion". He soon had to overcome his objections however, since Dove Cottage was far too small for his growing family, and Allan Bank was the only large house in Grasmere he could rent.^[7][8] There he would have enough room for all his household, as well as guests, and his children would be able to play on the slopes of Silver How and the banks of Grasmere lake.^[5] He accordingly took up the tenancy in the summer of 1807 with the intention of moving in some time during the autumn, though in the event this was delayed until the end of May 1808.^[9][10] "We already feel the comfort of having each a room of our own", wrote his sister Dorothy Wordsworth in June, but as the year drew on the Wordsworths began to change their minds as they realized that on windy days the various chimneys smoked appallingly.^[11] Dorothy called the house "literally not habitable", and complained that "dishes are washed, and no sooner set in the pantry then they are covered with smoke". On one stormy day, she wrote, "we could have no fire but in my Brother's Study – and that chimney smoked so much that we were obliged to go to bed with the Baby in the middle of the day to keep it warm, and I, with a candle in my hand, stumbled over a chair, unable to see it".^[5] Workmen were periodically brought in to tackle the chimney problem but their many attempts did not produce a full solution.^[12] In the midst of these difficulties the Wordsworths entertained Thomas De Quincey on a visit that lasted for three months, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge moved in with the intention of making his permanent home with the Wordsworths, though after two fraught years he left for Robert Southey's home in Keswick.^[13][14]

By the beginning of 1810 they were looking for another house, and in May they decided to transfer themselves to the old parsonage in the centre of Grasmere just as soon as it had been refurbished.^[15][16] Dorothy immediately began to regret the impending loss of their wonderful views of Grasmere and Easedale, and declared the place "sweeter than paradise itself".^[17] After a further year had passed, and without the planned improvements to the parsonage having been made, they moved in June 1811, leaving Allan Bank to their landlord Mr. Crump.^[18] During the Allan Bank years Wordsworth had written The Convention of Cintra, the first version of the Guide to the Lakes and most of The Excursion, and revised The White Doe of Rylstone, while Coleridge produced his journal The Friend.^[19][20]

Later owners

Thereafter Crump sometimes lived at Allan Bank himself, sometimes let it out to tenants, until it fell into other hands in 1831.

In October 2021, the building was one of 142 sites across England to receive part of a £35-million injection into the government's Culture Recovery Fund.^[29]

Red squirrels

Cumbria is one of the few remaining habitats in England of the red squirrel,^[30] and the grounds of Allan Bank are known as a place where they are especially commonly seen.^[31] They are encouraged by the National Trust staff there, who claim to spend £900 a year on feed, and by the Grasmere Red Squirrel Group.^[32] There is a sculpture of a red squirrel in the gardens.^[33]

Footnotes