Robinson's School

There was once a man called William Robinson, a native of Penrith, who went to London to seek his fortune. He became a wealthy merchant and property owner, but he never forgot his home town and left an annuity, sufficient to keep a school for ‘poor gerles’. Such a school was set up in 1670 in an Elizabethan building in the town. It remained a school until the early 1970s when it finally closed and the building was taken over to house the Penrith Museum and Tourist Information, which it still does. The lintel over the door has a carved inscription explaining how the school came into being, the date of 1670 can just be seen underneath the door frame.
 
Today we went to a lunchtime talk at Keswick Museum. The topic was Cumbria’s Curious Door Lintels and was a photographic presentation given by Brain Martland. It was excellent and kept a capacity audience enthralled. A few of the examples we knew about, but most were new to us, although a lot were from the Eden Valley, which was a place where, in the 17th century, it was apparently quite the thing to do. They were statements of ownership at a time when ordinary people were beginning to be able to own their own homes.
 
A pretty damp, grey day and not one to linger long in Keswick, so we headed back to Penrith to do some shopping and I swiftly took this photo of one of the lintels we had been shown.