for those
with family or other connections
but who have not had
the pleasure of visiting!
updated 13th March 2004
Click on subject: Location and Roads, Aerial View, Village Facilities, Water & Minerals (weather & mining), Businesses, Books
Threlkeld is about 4 miles (6 km) east of Keswick, in the heart of the North Lakes. The village is by-passed by the main road (A66) from Penrith to Keswick .
From (approximately) the centre of the village there is one road north, steeply uphill, which soon turns north west and rises to 1000 ft (300m) ASL, where it stops being a public road but continues as a path to Skiddaw Lodge. There is another road (B5322) running south to St John's in the Vale, Thirlmere and Ambleside.
There are several minor roads. From the west end of the village a narrow road runs to the hamlet of Wesco (and for the skilled driver on through Brunholme Woods to Keswick - presently closed because of a landslide!). From the east end of the village a road runs south up towards Threlkeld Common and ends at Newsham house. Off the Vale road a road runs into Threlkeld Quarry and the Quarry Village. Going further east towards Scales on the south of A66, there is the road to Threlkeld Hall and Keswick Golf Club and shortly after a gated road to Guardhouse a hamlet on the south side of the River Glenderamackin. Beyond Scales the old main road leaves to the south and off it are roads to Stoneraise (and back to Guardhouse) and to Wallthwaite and the back road to Troutbeck
The old main road through the Village is very windy, but despite that we have an excellent though under-used bus service using long buses, and regularly long trucks pass through thinking they are delivering to the other end. (It could be the new Blencathra Business Centre on the Quarry side that they really want and they should never have been on this side at all!)
Aerial View - from the top of Blencathra.
The civil parish is about 6000 acres and extends about 4 miles (6km) east-west and about the same north-south though the parish is not square! Only a strip about one mile wide along the Glenderamackin valley is farmed - about one third of the area - the rest is hill or common grazing.
Blencathra (2847 ft) overlooks the village (itself about 500 to 600 ft) and gives magnificent views in all directions.
From the summit looking south, you have the village of Threlkeld immediately below, then the A66 main road, then the River Glenderamackin (which rises behind you to the north of Blencathra), then the Quarry Village with Threlkeld Granite Quarry. Above the Quarry is Threlkeld Knotts and Clough Head.
Threlkeld Knotts and Clough Head are at the north end of the north-south ridge that leads to Helvellyn via Calfhow Pike, Great Dodd, Watson's Dodd, Stybarrow Dodd, dropping into Sticks Pass (turn left for the Greenside Lead Mine and Glenridding on Ullswater and turn right for Legburthwaite and Thirlmere) and up again to Raise and eventually Helvellyn.
Below the ridge to the right of the Quarry is Bram Crag (another quarry - originally linked to Threlkeld Quarry by a light railway) overlooking St John's in the Vale. Across the Vale (further right) nestling at the north end of the Rigg is St John's Church - now part of the United benefice of St John's in the Vale, St Mary's Threlkeld and Wythburn - and beside it the Carlisle Diocesan Youth Centre in the expanded old school.
Still looking south beyond the Vale you can see Thirlmere. Once two lakes the valley was flooded at the end of the 1800s to supply water (entirely by gravity) to Manchester 96 miles away. Beyond Thirlmere on a good day you may see Windermere and Morecambe Bay.
To the left of the Quarry is Threlkeld Common over which the Old Coach Road (now a rough track) goes, beneath Clough Head and Wolf Crags, to High Row in Matterdale. Still further left (east) is the rounded hill of Great Mell Fell with Little Mell Fell behind it.
Crossing the view from east to west, below the fell but beyond the Glenderamackin River, can be traced the line of the former Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway line. It closed in 1972 but part (out of sight to the right) between Threlkeld and Keswick now forms the excellent and very popular Railway Footpath. I often walk or cycle into Keswick that way. It is part of the C2C (sea to sea) walking and cycling long distance path. There is a campaign to reopen the railway from Keswick to Penrith.
Again looking down the Vale you can see the road from Dunmail Raise (at the old Cumberland/Westmorland county boundary) and Thirlmere coming towards you. It used to come directly into the Village but the by-pass has cut it off for vehicles.
In the Village we have two pubs: The Horse & Farrier Inn is the oldest though the Salutation Inn is not much younger. We have a Paper Shop and a part-time Post Office. There used to be many other retail premises but, with the ease of shopping in Keswick now, they closed some time ago. There is also another pub: The White Horse at Scales about 1.5 miles east of the Village on the A66.
We have some bed & breakfast establishments and several self catering cottages.
We have a Village Hall known as the Public Room built in 1901. Village activities in the hall include Bridge, Bowls and the Youth clubs. There are public toilets behind the hall.
We have an excellent primary school with over 70 pupils and recently extended.
The village church is dedicated to St Mary. It was rebuilt in 1776 on the site of an earlier church (about which we know nothing except that the old bell tower is incorporated into the new church and the bells are over 600 years old.) There has been a priest at Threlkeld since at latest 1220 because a document in the British Museum mentions one. St Mungo of Glasgow (Kentigern to those furth of Glasgow) preached here in 553.
Up until 1776 village children were taught in the chancel of the old church. However, at the same time as the rebuilding of the church, a School House was built in Blease Road (the road north from the village centre also known as Duck Street) first for the boys only, but in 1842 they built an upper floor for the girls. In 1849 the school moved across the road to new buildings which in 1999 celebrated its 150th anniversary with events and an exhibition.
We know that there has been schooling in Threlkeld since at latest 1659 because then Anthony Gilbankes of Guardhouse left £20 in his will towards the salary of the schoolmaster (who was often the assistant curate).
There are several village charitable trusts.
We do get a bit of water from above - sometimes it is white enough for cross country skiing in the village - Seathwaite - the wettest part of England is less than 10 miles away, and sometimes the fields in the valley bottom flood. They flood fast and it usually goes away fast. 8000 years ago the view from the top of Blencathra would probably have included a large lake, held there by the bank now breached by the River Greta in the gorge between Burns Farm and Wesco hamlet. Much of the Vale would have been covered and the site of the Village would have been just above water level. The Iron Age residents who had a settlement just below Threlkeld Knots may have seen its remnants.
The Quarry, which produced very fine quality granite, closed in 1982, but now there is a very good Mining and Quarrying Museum including an underground experience. Well worth a visit, open every day from early March to the end of October.
There have been many mines in the area some dating back at least to the 1500s. They are mainly for lead and zinc but copper and iron pyrites were mined too. The last mine (at Woodend to the east of the village) closed in 1928 (though it was not abandoned until 1948) because of the low price of lead and zinc.
There are many people working in or from Threlkeld. They include artists and building contractors, cabinet makers and furniture restorers, to parascenders’ canopy makers and speciality food suppliers.
A book was prepared as part of the Millennium celebrations and particularly the 150th anniversary of the present school buildings “Threlkeld: School & Community”. It has pictures of the Village and Quarry covering the last 120 years with background history.
There is also a booklet “Threlkeld Cumbria – Glimpses of a Village History” first published in 1977 but reprinted twice since wioth short updates.
Both books are available from Stuart Cresswell (e-mail
for details) Profits from Threlkeld: School & Community go to the school
and from Threlkeld Cumbria – Glimpses of a Village History to the Church.