Self-guided walking trail around Penrith
Congregational Church, Musgrave Hall, Middlegate and Little Dockray
The Explore Penrith trail helps you discover the centre of Penrith.
Congregational Church and Musgrave Hall
- Proceed along Wilson Row back to Middlegate
but look down Duke Street to see the old
Congregational Church. This was built in 1865
on the site of the Ebenezer Chapel that had
been founded in 1780. Samuel Plimsoll,
remembered for the Plimsoll Line painted on
ships’ hulls, attended this chapel. Mary Wilson,
wife of former Prime Minister, Harold Wilson,
attended this church; her father, the Revd Daniel Baldwin, was Congregational Minister of
Penrith.
The old Congregational Church window 
The old Congregational Church - Cross Middlegate by the Tourist Information Centre and facing you is Musgrave Hall, with the Musgrave heraldic
arms incorporated in the lintel of the former doorway.
This was the home of a branch of the
Musgraves, whose main family was at Edenhall.
Proceed along Middlegate.
Royal British Legion building detail
Middlegate and Little Dockray
- On the door lintel under the sign for Williamson Yard you can just discern the inscription RLE 1697
and a pair of shears indicating that this was the premises of a wool merchant.
Weavers, tanners and tailors once occupied this street: the workers lived in cottages up narrow passages
such as this behind their employers' premises that faced onto the street. There are several such yards
around Penrith.
Further up Middlegate, bear right into Little Dockray.
Williamson Yard - lintel inscribed RLE 1697 
Gibson Yard - The public house on the right hand side is the only remaining
public house of six that used to trade in Little Dockray. The building dates from 1679
and was converted into a publc house in the 1800s.
Formerly known as the ‘The General Wolfe’, named after the victor of the Battle of Quebec against the French in 1759.
In 1829, the town had 57 public houses to serve a population of 5,383! This was
because of the lack of safe drinking water; all
ages drank beer of various strengths until the
Board of Health put in mains water and proper
drains from 1853.
Turn right into Cornmarket.