Keswick School of Industrial Art

Keswick School of Industrial Art was an educational institution beside the River Greta with workshop spaces on the ground floor and exhibition areas plus a specialized library upstairs. The building operated as a center for metalwork and woodworking training for a hundred years.

The school was founded in 1884 by Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley and his wife Edith to create employment through evening classes in metalwork and woodworking. It closed in 1984 after a hundred years of continuous operation.

Craftspeople at the school focused on copper and silver decorative work, creating pieces that gained recognition across the country. Their approach mixed traditional metalworking skills with contemporary design ideas.

The Keswick Museum and Art Gallery now holds the collections of metalwork created during the school's time. Visitors can see the surviving pieces and crafted objects there to understand what was produced.

The building displayed a message on its facade reading 'The loving eye and patient hand Shall work with joy and bless the land'. This inscription remained visible until the school closed in 1984.

GPS coordinates: 54.60460,-3.14480

Latest update: December 10, 2025 15:55