The Lakes have long been associated with Beatrix Potter and her magical stories of animals come to life.
2016 marks the 150th anniversary of her birth, with special celebrations to mark the event taking place all over the Lakes, primarily in the places where Potter lived and worked.
The world of Beatrix Potter, Beatrix Potter Gallery and her home at Hill Top will all be marking the occasion.
The Lakes inspired many of Potter’s stories and drawings. As a child she made regular visits to Wray Castle near Ambleside and this is where her love of the landscape first came to be. She relocated to the area permanently as an adult.
Potter was a philanthropist, devoted to the promotion of the local area. After her death in 1943, she left her 14 farms and 4000 acres of land to the National Trust, stating that she wished for her home of Hill Top at Sawrey, to be kept open to the public and preserved in its original form.
The local area with its devotion to conservation is hugely indebted to Beatrix Potter, who was instrumental in championing this movement, from an early age.
Mike Innerdale, Lake District Assistant Director Operations, summed up Potter’s contribution as follows:
“But more than that –we plan to tell her story – her role in the conservation movement; her life as a business woman in a ‘man’s world’, buying up farms and land; sheep farming with herdwicks; and eventually leaving them all – 15 farms and 4000 acres of land to the Trust in her will, one of our largest and most important legacies in the Lake District. This was the forerunner for the Trust’s ownership and care of land in the Lakes.”