St. Oswald's Church, Grasmere

St. Oswald's Church is the parish church of Grasmere, Rydal, and Langdale in the Lake District, Cumbria, England. The Romantic-era poet William Wordsworth and his family worshiped here, and Wordsworth, his wife Mary, his sister Dorothy, some of their children and other family members are buried or memorialized in the church graveyard. A memorial stone to William Wordsworth as Poet Laureate, created by Pre-Raphaelite sculptor Thomas Woolner, is mounted inside the church.

The church itself was founded in 642 AD by St. Oswald. The current church building is the fourth on this site, with the earliest part of it dating to 1250 AD (St. Oswalds). The Wordsworths attended St. Oswald when they lived at Dove Cottage. William Wordsworth's wife Mary was a regular churchgoer, although William and his sister Dorothy attended church here more sporadically (Mahony 272).

Wordsworth died on 23 April 1850. On his instruction, he was buried at Grasmere where several of his children were buried and where his beloved sister Dorothy would be buried in 1855 and his wife Mary in 1859. According to the description of the graveyard at the St. Oswalds Church Grasmere website, "Eight of the present yew trees were planted by Wordsworth. The Wordsworth Daffodil Garden was created in 2004 from a piece of land which belonged to the Church but which was unuseable for burials."

All photos by Amy Gates, taken 25 July 2019.

Bibliography

Mahoney, John L. "Wordsworth and Ultimate Reality: Poetry and Religious Practice." Ultimate Reality and Meaning, vol. 30, no. 4, 2007, pp. 263-277, doi:10.3138/uram.30.4.263.

St. Oswalds Church Grasmere, Grasmere PCC, July 2020, https://stoswaldsgrasmere.uk/.

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