Visiting the Pencil Museum – Keswick, Lake District, England

Published on by Mélodie

This Friday Matt had a day off work for his birthday and we wanted to do something all together; however, the weather was so awful that it wasn’t possible to go for a walk. So we decided to visit the pencil museum in Keswick. We had never been there but I knew that they were dog friendly and I also had a discount with my Cumbria card so it was the perfect time to go there.

Ce vendredi Matt avait un jour de congés pour son anniversaire et nous voulions faire quelque chose en famille mais vu qu’il y avait un orage ce n’était pas possible de faire une randonnée. A la place, nous avons décidé de visiter le musée du crayon (Pencil museum) à Keswick. Nous ne l’avions jamais visité mais je savais qu’ils acceptaient les chiens et j’avais aussi une réduction avec ma carte my Cumbria donc c’était parfait.

Find all the information about My Cumbria card, that offers discount to several places in Cumbria for local resident.

Keswick Pencil Museum, Cumbria
Little tunnel to explain the mining of graphite

The museum is not big and the visit only takes 1h-1h30 but it is still nice and great for children as they have a drawing area where children and parents can stop and draw. The museum mainly explains the origin of graphite and the pencil manufacturing history in Keswick and Cumbria. There are several information panels and videos that provide all the information. There are also some display of tools, old boxes of pencils and a 8-meter long pencil. Additionally there is a shop and tearoom.

Le musée n’est pas très grand et il se visite en 1h-1h30 mais il est tout de même très bien et parfait pour les enfants car ils ont un endroit où les enfants et parents peuvent s’arrêter dessiner. Le musée explique l’origine du graphite et de la production de crayons à Keswick en Cumbria. Il y a plusieurs panneaux informatifs et vidéos qui explique toute l’histoire. Il y a aussi quelques outils de production, de vieilles boites de crayons et un crayon long de 8 mètre. De plus il y a un petit magasin et salon de thé.

Find all the information to visit the Pencil Museum here. Family and dog friendly, car park on-site (fees apply).

Keswick Pencil Museum, Cumbria
One of the information panel

We really enjoyed discovering the history of this little industry. Graphite was discovered around 1550 in the Borrowdale valley, around Castle Crag, and it was only from 1832 that pencils started to be produced in Keswick. In 1932, the first colour pencil was created and during the second world war maps were even hidden in pencils. In 2008 the Queen opened the new factory in Workington, in 2016 they obtained the “Made in Britain” marque and in 2021 the PEFC sustainable timber certification.

Nous avons bien aimé découvrir l’histoire de cette petite industrie. Le graphite fut découvert dans les années 1550 dans la vallée de Borrowdale, autour du sommet de Castle Crag, et ce n’est qu’en 1832 que les premiers crayons furent produit à Keswick. Le premier crayon couleur fut créé en 1932 et pendant la seconde guerre mondiale des cartes étaient cachés dans les crayons. En 2008, la Reine ouvrit la nouvelle usine à Workington, en 2016 ils obtenaient le label “Made in Britain” et en 2021 la certification pour l’utilisation de bois durable.

Read about our walk to Castle Crag summit here.

Keswick Pencil museum, Cumbria
Colour powders

After the visit, as it was still raining heavily, we drove back home but we stopped at the Art Gallery and tea room in Thornthwaite for a light lunch. This is lovely gallery to visit with beautiful local painting and products and small dog friendly vegetarian tearoom.

Après la visite, vu qu’il pleuvait toujours nous avons décidé de rentrer à la maison mais avons fait un petit détour par la gallery d’art de Thornthwaite pour déjeuner. Cette petite gallery expose de magnifique tableaux de scènes locales et produits locaux et a même un salon de thé qui accepte les chiens.

Find all the information about Thornthwaite art gallery here.

Have you visited the Pencil museum in Keswick or stop at the Thornthwaite art gallery?

Avez vous déjà visité le musée du Pencil à Keswick ou la gallery d’art de Thornthwaite?

Find more places to visit in Cumbria in this page. To discover dog-friendly walks it is here.

38 thoughts on “Visiting the Pencil Museum – Keswick, Lake District, England”

  1. How neat! Many years ago I visited this museum as well. I keep finding it a kind of magic how they manage to stuff the graphite into the wooden casing. I remember bying a carpenter’s pencil for my friend the… well… carpenter. He, being half English, loved it. 🙂

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  12. I visited four years ago and to be honest I found it to be a bit of a disappointment so it’s nice to read your account of it. Although the history of pencil making itself was interesting it was lacking in the finer details of the history of the place itself and the lives of the people who once worked there. I think calling it a ‘museum’ is a bit of a misnomer, ‘collection’ would be a better way of describing the sets of pencils on display. I did like the world’s largest coloured pencil though. It’s rather an odd place which I wouldn’t revisit, however the Puzzling Place also in Keswick was much more fun – if you haven’t already been then maybe you should. I wrote about both places in July 2021.

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    1. I understand what you are saying it is indeed a very high summary of the history of pencils making. I can recognise that if you are looking for a lot of details you might be disappointed. As we had a toddler running around for us it was enough details. We haven’t done the Puzzling place yet but Marcus went twice with his cousins when they visited us and they loved it. It is next on our list.

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  13. Like you I remember taking the boys on a rainy day when staying in Braithwaite. Its fun for an hour or so, and always good to see where something is made, considering Lakeland pencils were everywhere when I was a boy

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