Wordsworth's School

Bishop Yards is literally seconds away from the hustle and bustle of Penrith’s major thoroughfares.  The Tudor building on the south side of the churchyard was built in 1563 and was once the Dame Birkett School attended by William Wordsworth, his sister and wife to be.  Most of the other buildings around the church are Georgian.  On a sunny day it is pleasant to walk around Bishop Yards.  There is much to see and the lawned churchyard has seating areas under the shade of the trees.  A huge Gothic monument in the grounds commemorates Penrith man Robert Virtue, the Building Superintendent of the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway.  Seventy two workers were killed during the construction of the line.