Beatrix Potter is one of the names that quickly comes to many people’s minds when they think of the Lake District. However, unlike William and Dorothy Wordsworth, she was not native Cumbrian. She was a London-born lady who fell in love with the Lake District early in life during holidays there with her family in the 1870s and 80s.

She created the much-loved characters of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and many more, and from the first publication of The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1901 wrote a steady stream of beautifully illustrated children’s books, combining her skills of painting and writing in a way that attracted rapid fame and fortune.

Beatrix fell in love also with her publisher, but her well-to-do family considered him to be rather below her station in life and were opposed to the relationship. His early death, during the period of their secret engagement, left Beatrix Potter devastated.

Shortly before his death in 1905 she had invested a legacy and money from her royalties on purchasing Hill Top Farm at Sawrey in that part of Lakeland which then was the northern tip of Lancashire (now, since the 1974 county boundary changes, incorporated into the new county of Cumbria). She spent as much time there as she could, but frequently the demands of her family led her to spend extensive periods in London.

Hill Top eventually became Beatrix Potter’s home. Over the years she acquired considerable areas of land and was an enthusiast for the Lakeland sheep breed, the Herdwick. She married a local lawyer (once again considered by her family to be beneath her), becoming Mrs. Heelis and living in the Lake District until her death at the age of seventy-seven in 1943. Beatrix Potter’s long relationship with the Lake District is well illustrated in this book. Click on the graphic for details.

Beatrix Potter Attractions

From her base at Sawrey Beatrix Potter she explored great areas of the countryside around and became an active preserver of Lake District landscape, buying extensive tracts of farmland to protect it from what she considered to be inappropriate development; this is now in the capable hands of the National Trust. Her home, Hill Top, Sawrey, is open to the public. (Note: Hill Top is a small property so a queuing system is in operation at peak times; it also closes for one day each week).

In Hawkshead the former law offices of her husband, William Heelis, are now the site of the Beatrix Potter Gallery, run by the National Trust.

There is also a Beatrix Potter attraction, The World of Beatrix Potter, in Bowness-on-Windermere which includes (to quote the publicity material), “… all 23 Tales by Beatrix Potter, brought to life in a magical indoor recreation of the Lakeland countryside, complete with sights, sounds and even smells.”

My wife and I have just returned from another expedition to the English Lake District, this time to the southern lakes. We camped near the foot of Coniston Water with the intention of building up a better collection of photos of the Crake valley as well of the Coniston and Hawkshead area.

Well, things didn’t turn out quite as planned.  Several days and nights of frequent rain storms hampered the photography.  In spite of the damp, though, we had a great time and the limited number of good photos this time has the advantage of requiring another trip in the not too distant future.

Hill Top and Hawkshead – Beatrix Potter

On Friday we decided to have an indoor day and to visit the Beatrix Potter sites.  Why didn’t we take our National Trust handbook with us?  It would have told us that Hill Top is closed on Fridays.

I really don’t understand this.  Certainly the property has to be protected against too much visitor stress, and limitations on the number of visitors per day are fully justifiable, but closing the region’s leading attraction on a weekday during the height of the visitor season is beyond my comprehension.

Initially my frustration was personal, but of course as a member I ought to have checked my handbook.  However, a large proportion of visitors are not members and would never imagine that such an important site would be closed.  Sitting in the car eating an egg sandwich before driving back to Hawkshead I watched car after car arriving, unloading children.  They would walk cheerfully as far as the “Closed today” notice board only to return dejected, almost tearful, anticipation squashed.

“Never mind,” parents were probably saying, “there’s the Beatrix Potter gallery in Hawkshead.  We’ll go and see Peter Rabbit there.”  Hmm!  If I don’t fully understand the closure of the house, I certainly don’t understand at all the mentality of closing both of the Beatrix Potter locations on the same day of the week.  This is just incomprehensible.

We did eventually get to Hill Top the following day, and enjoyed it.  I am an admirer of the National Trust and its work, but do believe that it needs to give much more serious thought to its closure policy. at least during July and August, when so many children are being sent away disappointed from both places – not to mention the thousands of gallons of petrol being burned up each year on these fruitless trips along the country lanes; should this be added to the Trust’s carbon footprint?

The above photograph, taken last Saturday, shows the house as it is today, dressed in its summer greenery. This, however, is not as Beatrix Potter bought it. She added extensions to the original property. She was not a preservationist of the type that insists on keeping everything unchanged. She knew that one has to move with the needs of the times.

In this case, she wanted to install a farm manager so built the extension wing visible on the left of the photo to house him and his family (this part is not open to visitors). Internally, as well, she made changes. The sophisticated fire surround in the parlour was the first that I noticed; not at all typical of a small Lakeland farmhouse and apparently installed by Beatrix Potter after buying it at a local sale. She also added a room in which to hang some of her brother’s paintings. Preservation and progress were equal constituents of this phase of Hill Top’s development.

- David Murray -
England’s Lakes