Admirers of the work of Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, who is best known in the Keswick area as the one-time vicar of Crosthwaite, and further afield as one of the founders of the National Trust, will have another chance to hear about one of his and his wife Edith’s important contributions to life in the town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Rawnsleys’ great-granddaughter and co-author of Canon Rawnsley’s biography, Rosalind Rawnsley, will give a talk on Thursday September 21, at 6.30pm in the Borrowdale Institute, Rosthwaite.
Canon Rawnsley’s introduction to the Lake District was “South o’t Raise”, where he spent some convalescent time in Ambleside and first made the acquaintance of his wife-to-be, Edith Fletcher.
They soon married and Canon Rawnsley and Edith arrived in Keswick in 1833 when he became vicar of Crosthwaite Church as well as Rural Dean, which meant his “flock” also included the parishioners of Borrowdale, Newlands, Thornthwaite, Wythburn and St John’s-in-the-Vale.
One of the many projects that the Rawnsleys had begun in Ambleside took root in Keswick. Inspired by John Ruskin, a close friend from Rawnsley’s Oxford days, the vicar and Mrs Edith Rawnsley set up the Keswick School of Industrial Arts, to train and encourage local men to develop skills in the model of the arts and crafts movement, and, not to put too fine a point on it, to offer the young men of the town something other to do in the winter than hang around and drink in public houses … Rawnsley was rather a believer in the idea that “the Devil would find work for idle hands.”
The skills practised at the Keswick School of Industrial Arts soon spread to other sites in Keswick, as the craftsmen left to set up their own businesses; including William Henry Mawson who left in 1900/1901 to set up The Keswick Home Industry on Lake Road, and in the 1950s, John Bainbridge who was foreman and head designer at the Lakeland Rural Industries, Grange-in-Borrowdale.
Examples of their work will be seen at the talk.
Mark Radcliffe, chair of The Borrowdale Story, which is organising the event, said: “We will not only celebrate the legacy of the Keswick School of Industrial Arts, but also explore its relevance and resonance in our own lives today.
“As we face increasing pressures to work faster and more efficiently, the message of the arts and crafts movement – that work can and should be a source of joy and fulfilment – is more important than ever.”
Contact [email protected] to book your place. £10 donation at the door; refreshments included.
