This is not your usual Trust Property but as soon as you walk through the door there is a quiet serenity to the house that lifts your spirits. Following a fire in 2011 it is only partially furnished and decorated. Instead of the usual collection of artefacts each room has a specific feel to it. Whether it is the small library containing books on mountaineering and outdoor pursuits where my husband spent a wonderful hour ensconced in a comfortable chair, or the large room next door where a trestle table held paper and pencils to sketch the gorgeous view from a large window or the other rooms to sit read and watch nature at its best -this was our favourite place to visit. Help yourself to a drink, tinkle the ivories on the old piano, read about William Wordsworth and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley who had both lived here at varying times. Inspect the new mural commission by Japanese artist Hideyuki Sobue, as yet unfinished, about Beatrix Potter and her relationship with the Wonderful Lake District. Just take a free Trust deckchair, place it in the lovely grounds and take in the beauty of Grasmere lake and this gem of a Georgian Villa – Magic!
Once home to William Wordsworth and Hardwicke Rawnsley, Allan Bank has a rich history, but it isn’t a traditional National Trust property. There’s no collection here, and the building is only partially decorated after a fire in 2011, but by leaving the building as an empty shell, it focuses the eye on the most significant feature of Allan Bank- its landscape.
