To celebrate Theatre by the Lake’s 25th anniversary in August, Keswick Museum has a new display about their 2013 production of Hugh Walpole’s 1930 novel Rogue Herries. It includes the original manuscript of the novel, photos of the play, and more. It will be on display for the whole month of August.

Rogue Herries is the story of Francis ‘Rogue’ Herries, who brings his family (and mistress) to live in Borrowdale in 1730. The author, Hugh Walpole, moved to the Lake District in 1924 to live in a house below Cat Bells called Brackenburn. Walpole was so inspired by the area that he used real locations as settings in his novels.

Rogue Herries was incredibly successful and Walpole also wrote three sequels and a prequel, with another volume in the works when he died in 1941. He left the manuscripts of the novels to Keswick Museum.

Museum curator Joseph Massey said: “We’re very lucky to have Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, as it means there are always excellent plays right here in the heart of Cumbria. We’re also directly connected to them by Edward Thompson, who volunteers at both the museum and the theatre. Edward was in the 2013 production of Rogue Herries, so I actually saw him on stage a decade before we started working together at Keswick Museum! He has shared some of his memories and production material for the display."