Weird & wonderful · North West England
Derwent Pencil Museum
Also known as: Cumberland Pencil Museum
The story of the pencil, told in Keswick where graphite was first discovered.
Rose and Trev Clough — CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons licence
Plan your visit
- Typical visit
- 1 h–2 h
About
The Derwent Pencil Museum at Keswick — long known as the Cumberland Pencil Museum — tells the story of pencil-making in the Lake District, where graphite was first discovered at Seathwaite in the 16th century, and how the local Cumberland Pencil Company invented the modern pencil. Exhibits include the world's longest pencil (8 m), wartime escape-and-evade pencils with hidden maps and compasses smuggled to RAF crews, and a working production line. Tiny, much-loved, the most-quoted oddity on every Lake District trip-planner.
Photo gallery
From the Wikipedia article
The Derwent Pencil Museum is a museum dedicated to the manufacturing and history of pencils, located in Keswick, in the north-west of England.
Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.
Background
History
The first pencil factory, owned by the Cumberland Pencil Company, opened in Keswick in 1832. The second and current factory was started in the 1920s and completed in 1950 and closed in 2007 when production was moved to Workington. The museum opened in 1981 and is home to one of the biggest colouring pencils in the world, the idea of technical manager Barbara Murray. The yellow pencil was completed on 28 May 2001, is 7.91 m long, and weighs 446.36 kg. In addition, the museum features a replica of a Seathwaite graphite mine. The museum now receives over 80,000 visitors a year from all around the world. It is particularly popular with visitors from the county of Yorkshire, due to the…
Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Coordinates
- 54.6024, -3.1378
- District
- Cumberland
- Parish
- Keswick
- Postcode
- CA12 5DS
- Parliamentary constituency
- Penrith and Solway
- Phone
- +44 1768 392 160
- Established
- 1981
- Official site
- www.derwentart.com
Sources
- manual: cumberland-pencil-museum (manual)
- wikipedia: Derwent Pencil Museum (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Featured in these 3 guides
Itinerary
Weird and wonderful Britain: 12 oddities
Chalk giants, follies, marble mountains and a 4-million-shell underground passage.
Itinerary
Lake District with kids: a wet-weather plan
When the rain comes in over Borrowdale — the indoor and edge-of-indoor backups.
Itinerary
Britain's strangest museums
Pencils, lawnmowers, dog collars, mustard, marbles, and 4 million seashells.
Other places nearby
Loading nearby places…
Nearby
📷 3Galleries · Scottish Lowlands
Lucy Pittaway Art Gallery
Lucy Pittaway Art Gallery — a gallery in scotland-lowlands, United Kingdom.
📷 3Indoor climbing centres · Scottish Lowlands
Kong Adventure
Kong Adventure — a indoor climbing in scotland-lowlands, United Kingdom.
📷 3Museums · Scottish Lowlands
Puzzling Place
Puzzling Place — a museum in scotland-lowlands, United Kingdom.
📷 5Museums · Scottish Lowlands
Keswick, Cumbria
Keswick, Cumbria — a museum in scotland-lowlands, United Kingdom.
Cafés · Scottish Lowlands
YHA Cafe
YHA Cafe — a café in scotland lowlands.
Hotels · Scottish Lowlands
The Skiddaw Hotel
The Skiddaw Hotel — a hotel in scotland lowlands.
Other places from this era
Flagship📷 10Weird & wonderful · London
Hamleys
The world's oldest toy shop, seven floors of Regent Street since 1760.
★ Iconic📷 10Weird & wonderful · South East England
Bekonscot Model Village & Railway
The world's oldest model village — a frozen 1930s England in miniature.
★ Iconic📷 10Weird & wonderful · South East England
Long Man of Wilmington
72-metre chalk hill figure on the South Downs, largest in Western Europe.
★ Iconic📷 10Weird & wonderful · South East England
Shell Grotto
A 4.6-million-shell underground passage of unknown origin, discovered in 1835.
Frequently asked questions
- Where is Derwent Pencil Museum?
- Derwent Pencil Museum is in North-West England, United Kingdom (postcode CA12 5DS), in the parish of Keswick.
- When was Derwent Pencil Museum built?
- Built or established in 1981.
- Who owns Derwent Pencil Museum?
- Derwent Pencil Museum is owned by | publictransit =.
- How do I get to Derwent Pencil Museum?
- Drivers can navigate to postcode CA12 5DS. It sits within the Penrith and Solway parliamentary constituency.
- How busy is Derwent Pencil Museum?
- Derwent Pencil Museum draws around 80,000 visitors a year.