St. Oswald's Church, Grasmere

St. Oswald's Church, GrasmereSt. 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."

St. Oswald's Church NaveWordsworth MemorialWordsworth Graves

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/.

Parent Map

Age of Romanticism - Collaborative Map
Age of Romanticism - Collaborative Map - Spring 2021
Age of Romanticism - Collaborative Map - Fall 2021

Coordinates

Latitude: 54.457500000000
Longitude: -3.023700000000

Timeline of Events Associated with St. Oswald's Church, Grasmere

Date Event Manage

Wordsworth's Grave (Hine)
23 Apr 1850

Death of William Wordsworth

Yew Trees, St. Oswald's ChurchRomantic poet William Wordsworth turned 80 on 7 April 1850. He caught a cold on a country walk that year, and after a short illness, he died at home at Rydal Mount of pleurisy on 23 April 1850. His funeral was held on 27 April 1850 in St. Oswald's Church, Grasmere, and he was buried in the graveyard near the yew trees he had planted. 

Although Wordsworth had been the Poet Laureate of England since 1843, he was no longer writing new verse. As Samantha Matthews notes, when Wordsworth died, most contemporary newspapers and periodicals made little of the event (35). Yet, the public who had long revered Wordsworth in life turned in grave into a "shrine for actual and imagined pilgrimage" (35). 

Photo by Amy Gates

Bibliography

Matthews, Samantha. "Wordsworth's Mortal Remains." The Wordsworth Circle, vol. 34, no. 1, 2003, pp. 35-39, doi:10.1086/TWC24044918.