Wednesday 9th December

The Cumberland Pencil Company

As guests of David Sharrock I invited a party of ten people to be shown around the Pencil Factory at Lillyhall.

I had visited the Museum in Keswick some years ago and found that excellent, both from my own point of view and the children I had with me. However, to actually see the pencils made was very interesting indeed. We were made very welcome and enjoyed a buffet lunch and a gift of some pencils before we left.

Legend has it that in the early 1500s, a violent storm in the Borrowdale area of Cumberland led to trees being uprooted and the discovery of a strange black material underneath. This material turned out to be graphite, and shepherds began using it to make their sheep. A cottage industry of pencil making soon developed, culminating in the formation of the UK's first pencil factory in 1832.