Town End Boathouse

LAKES

NY 30 NW 1945/7/10001 02-MAR-01

GRASMERE Town End Boathouse

II

Boat house. Dated 1843, a rebuilding of an earlier boathouse. For William Pearson, astronomer . (d.1847 ). Rubble Lakeland stone, with quoined corners, decorative barge boards and a Westmorland slate roof covering, laid to diminishing courses. EXTERIOR: West elevation facing Grasmere, with wide, semi-circular arch forming boat entrance to covered mooring at ground floor level. Narrow slate string course forms cill to central upper floor 3 -light window , the central light taller than the flanking lights. The window is set beneath a stepped hood mould. Above, oversailing verges carried on the exposed ends of purlins and wall plates. South side elevation with single gabled dormer rising through the eaves. Single-storey east elevation to road with central doorway with studded double doors beneath a hood mould. Above, a plaque which reads " W. P. 1843 ".Narrow projecting wing to north with circular chimney. INTERIOR: Narrow boat-shaped mooring with coursed rubble flanking walls incorporating landing steps. Walkways on either side of the mooring lead to twin flights of steps to upper level. HISTORY: William Pearson attended Hawkshead Grammar School at the same time as William Wordsworth, and became a curate and rector. He later became the owner of a private school in East Sheen, Surrey, where he founded an observatory. He established a reputation as an astronomer, but also some notoriety as the owner of the boathouse, which caused considerable offence to his former school contemporary, Wordsworth, who wrote criticizing the first boathouse, describing it as " a tasteless thing in itself " and " utterly out of place " The rebuilt structure was considered by the poet to be an improvement "not now, per se, an ugly building, however obtrusive it may be " A small lakeside boathouse, built by William Pearson, astronomer, in 1843, and the cause of ongoing irritation to his former school contemporary, William Wordsworth who considered it to be obtrusive. The boathouse was a manifestation of the growing recreational appreciation and use of the Lakes in the mid-C19.

Listing NGR: NY3417306798