What you find

This morning, having to be in Penrith, we decided to follow a Trail from a leaflet I picked up a while back. Just amazing what you can find out about a place you think you know very well, just by acting as a tourist.

This is Penrith Town Hall. I did know about this, I have actually been in, although I can’t remember why. But I don’t think I have ever really looked at it before. And I certainly didn’t know its history.
 
It’s a fine building, with ‘considerable street presence’ *
 
It was originally a pair of identical semi-detached town houses, built in 1791. They must have been impressive houses, in Italian Renaissance style. The one on the left, known as Wordsworth House, was occupied by Captain John Wordsworth, a cousin of the poet William. He lived there until his death in 1819. (There’s a blue plaque on the wall!)
 
In 1905 the two houses were made into the Town Hall and a Free Library (the library sign is still there, although the library moved out long ago) and the building we see today. In this picture, on the wall, you can see the carved facsimile of the town seal. The brass original of this was created in 1242 to acknowledge the town’s strong links with Scotland – so it has the cross of St Andrew. I have blipped this before in another part of Penrith and with its full history. The seal is also used on some of the windows of the Town Hall.
 
* There is a very detailed description of the architecture of the building on the Historic England web site, where it is listed.