Prince of Wales Visit - 1857

Whilst transcribing the Parish Registers for St Patrick’s Church, Patterdale, Chris Darvill noticed this note towards the back of the 1763-1812 Baptismal and Burial Register.

It records the visit to Patterdale, in 1857, by the young (15 years old) Prince Albert the eldest son of Queen Victoria.

Parish Register Extract - May 1857

“His Royal Highness Albert Edward Prince of Wales accompanied by Col. Cavendish, Equerry in Waiting to his Royal Highness Prince Albert, the Right Hon. Lord Cadogan, eldest Son of Viscount Chelsea, Mr Wood (Son of Sir Charles Wood), F.W. Gibbs Esq private tutor to the Prince, Dr. Armstrong, Mr Walker travelling courier to the Royal Family, and attendants arrived at Gelderd’s Family Hotel Patterdale about seven o’clock on Saturday evening the 16^th day of May 1857 from Keswick. On Sunday morning the Prince and party attended Divine Service in the Church at Patterdale and on Monday they departed by way of Pooley Bridge, Lowther Castle & Brougham Hall to Penrith on their tour through the Lake District and returned to Osborne on the Wednesday following.”

The Prince and his party, spent two nights at Gelderd's Family Hotel in Patterdale (now the Patterdale Hotel). Described in guide books of the time as one of the finest hotels in the Lake District.

Upon the death of his mother Queen Victoria on the 8th Dec 1901, Prince Albert became King Edward VII.