OF MICE AND BUNNIES: NEAR SAWREY, CUMBRIA/BEATRIX POTTER

Beatrix Potter, who died in 1943, is best known for her children’s books featuring an array of charming animal characters, with illustrations depicting the characters in human clothing.  Benjamin Bunny, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, Squirrel Nutkin and their friends were brought together a few years ago as a collection of special 50P pieces, a testament to their enduring popularity.

Potter’s obvious affection for the animal world must in part stem from the fact that she made her home in the Lake District with all its natural wonders.  Her house, Hill Top, now managed by the National Trust, is in the village of Near Sawrey, near the west shore of Lake Windermere.  Some of her favourite possessions can be viewed in the house, while the garden, in the style of the English cottage-garden, displays scenes from her books.

Hill Top Near Sawrey 120510w. Photo by Strobilomyces, via Wikimedia Commons.

On the other side of Lake Windermere, in Bowness-on-Windermere there is an attraction aimed at families called The World of Beatrix Potter with displays featuring the characters in Potter’s books.  I have not visited, but it seems to get the thumbs-up on Tripadvisor.

Map of Near Sawrey.

A MAJOR POET CELEBRATES A MINOR RIVER: RIVER DUDDON, CUMBRIA/WORDSWORTH

When a river forms the subject of a work of poetry, more often than not it is a major river.  The Thames, the Wye and other famous British rivers have been the subject of famous poems over the years.  So it is slightly puzzling that Wordsworth chose the obscure River Duddon as the subject of a series of sonnets.  It appears he may have found encouragement in a letter written by Robert Burns to a fellow poet, which Wordsworth read and quoted from frequently.  In the letter Burns asserted that the likes of the Thames, Seine et al had already been done to death in poetry, so better to seek inspiration “adown some trottin burn’s meander”. 

Be that as it may, an obvious reason for choosing the River Duddon is that it is close to where Wordsworth was living, in his beloved Lake District.  The birth of the river is described thus: “Child of the clouds ! remote from every taint//Of sordid industry thy lot is cast”.  The verse goes on for page after page, with sections headed ‘Flowers’, ‘The Stepping-Stones’, ‘The Fairy Chasm’, right up to the ‘Conclusion’ numbered XXXIII.  In short, no-one can accuse Wordsworth of short-changing the River Duddon.

Stepping Stone near Crosby Bridge, River Duddon - geograph.org.uk - 2452540. Photo by Tom Richardson, via Wikimedia Commons.

The River Duddon flows through the south-western part of the Lake District, passing the villages of Seathwaite and Duddon Bridge before widening out to an estuary, joining the sea between Haverigg and Barrow-in-Furness.

Map of the area.

LAUREATE OF THE LAKES: ROBERT SOUTHEY/KESWICK

 There is a painting in Keswick Museum of a rather attractive young man with rosy cheeks and lips, dark curly hair and brown eyes.  The young man in question is Robert Southey, one of a trio of 18^th/19^th century poets associated with the Lake District.   The other two are William Wordsworth and Southey’s brother-in-law Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who we previously met in this blog living in Somerset.  Southey was born in Bristol, but he moved to Keswick in 1803 and died there 40 years later, spending 30 of those years as Poet Laureate. 

Robert Southey (1774-1843), Aged 31 John Opie (1761-1807) Keswick Museum. Via Wikimedia Commons.

During his time in the Lake District, Southey lived at Greta Hall, initially sharing it with the Coleridge family.  Occupying a position near the river in Keswick, Greta Hall was built around 1800.  The Hall was visited by a number of famous literary types including the Wordsworths, Charles Lamb, Shelly and Sir Walter Scott.  The Hall subsequently became a girls’ school and then girls’ boarding house, before becoming a private property when for a time it offered self-catering accommodation.  It was put up for sale in 2021 for £1.2 million and remains in private hands.

 

Greta Hall and Keswick Bridge by William Westall (1781-1850), via Wikimedia Commons.

I have struggled to find any poetry by Southey inspired by the Lake District.  His work covers a wide range of topics including various battles and wars, and the time he spent in Spain and Portugal, as well as the original version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  However, I found a poem by him titled “The Cataract of Lodore” (a Lake District beauty spot better known today as the Lodore Falls).  The poem was written in response to a query by Southey’s son, “How does the water come down at Lodore?”  The resulting poem comes across as an increasingly demented  but highly descriptive account of the descent of the falls, “smoking and frothing”...”striking and raging”...”swelling and sweeping”...”flying and flinging”...”heaving and cleaving”...”quivering and shivering”...”bubbling and troubling and doubling” – you get the picture. 

Lodore Falls 3. Photo by Antiquary, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

For those who want to check out this elaborate description for themselves, the Lodore Falls are near the southern edge of Derwentwater, just inland from the Lodore Falls Hotel and Spa. 

Map of the area.

CUMBRIAN CAPERS: WITHNAIL & I

 

The British actor Richard E. Grant has appeared in many films and TV series over the years, but the film he will be most remembered for must surely be Withnail & I, released in 1986, in which two unemployed actors, Withnail (Grant) and his friend (Paul McGann, appearing as ‘& I’ in the credits) retreat to the wilds of Cumbria for an eventful holiday.

It is Withnail’s Uncle Monty (Richard Griffiths) who provides the accommodation for the holiday, in the form of a cottage called Crow Cragg.  The real-life cottage seen in the film is Sleddale Hall, an early 19^th century derelict cottage near Shap to the west of the A6.  The view from the cottage takes in a reservoir, seen in the scene in which Withnail declares “I’m gonna be a star!”  This scene was shot in an elevated position overlooking Haweswater Reservoir in the valley of Mardale, between Ullswater and the M6.  The dam was started in 1929 to supply water to the large conurbations of the north-west such as Manchester, causing great controversy due to the necessity of moving people out of the local farming villages and flooding them. 

Longsleddale Haweswater reservoir - panoramio (1). Photo by  jim walton, via Wikimedia Commons.

Of the remaining scenes shot in Cumbria, among the most memorable are the scene in which Withnail takes to a red telephone kiosk to chase up his agent and the scene where he attempts a bit of fishing with a shotgun.  The red phone box is located in the village of Bampton, Cumbria, next to a bus stop on Wideworth Farm Road.  The phone box itself is something of a piece of national heritage, since phone boxes in general, and red ones in particular, are hard to come by in the age of the mobile phone.  I don’t know whether it was retained because of the film, but it has become something of a visitor attraction, with a book inside for visitors to leave comments.  The fishing scene was filmed on a picturesque stone bridge over the River Lowther near Shap.  The bridge is a short walk downhill from Sleddale Hall.  A good Ordnance Survey map should show the way, with the runoff from the reservoir clearly seen flowing into the river.

Bampton, Heading out the Village - geograph.org.uk - 2525564. Photo by Mick Garratt, via Wikimedia Commons.

A desperate quest for food has the pair knocking at the door of the local farmer’s mother, Mrs Parkin, who yells out at them through the closed door.  This scene was shot at Keld, Cumbria (not to be confused with the Keld in the Yorkshire Dales).  In a subsequent scene the farmer remonstrates with the pair for leaving a gate open, allowing an angry bull access to the lane they are about to walk down.  The gate in question is located at Scar Side Farm in Bampton. 

The locations featured in the film are easily reached from the eastern part of the Lake District, and the nearest large town is Penrith, to the north, in the Eden Valley, just to the east of the M6.

Map of the area.

A DAWDLE THROUGH THE DALES: WAINWRIGHT'S PENNINE JOURNEY

 

The late Alfred Wainwright is best known for his walks in the Lake District, and the wonderful series of guides that he wrote, complete with hand-drawn maps.  However, in 1938 he escaped the rising tensions in the country brought on by the threat of impending war by taking a holiday from work to go walking in the dales of Yorkshire, heading through into Teesdale and Weardale, reaching the climax of his walk on his arrival at Hadrian’s Wall before heading back down south, all on foot.  This was well before the days of the Internet and accommodation booking websites, so when he turned up at his chosen overnight destination, unless he was lucky enough to find a room at the inn, he would knock on a random door to enquire about rooms in the private homes of the area – unthinkable nowadays.  Wainwright documented his holiday in his book A Pennine Journey.

When we think of The Dales, it is the Yorkshire Dales which immediately spring to mind.  However, a bit further north is Teesdale in County Durham, which I visited for the first time a few years ago, and found quite charming.  Wainwright’s introduction to Teesdale is a descent “from heather to pastureland, and”...”further downhill amongst meadows and woodlands”.  He comes to Cotherstone with its village green and prosperous air, too posh to offer accommodation to the passing walker.  He therefore ends up spending the night in Romaldkirk, with two inns: the upmarket Rose and Crown and the much more modest and neglected Kirk Inn.  Wainwright opts for the latter, which he likens to a shy woman looking over her shoulder at a prospective lover (the Rose and Crown).  Wainwright is less taken with the larger Middleton with its “homes built in long, ugly rows”.  For present-day visitors, the Rose and Crown is still operating as a hotel and the Kirk Inn as a pub but with no accommodation. 

 

       Romaldkirk. - geograph.org.uk - 132432. Photo by Colin Smith, via Wikimedia Commons.

The highlight of Wainwright’s walk is Hadrian’s Wall, and he makes no bones about his excitement on approaching this great feature of the landscape of Northern England.  The first hint that he is approaching his much anticipated goal is when he comes to a village called Wall, around 5 miles north of Hexham.  His eagerness to reach the Wall is such that he breaks into a run on approaching it. 

When he joins the Wall he can’t see it as it is buried under tarmac at this point, but he presses on to Cilurnum – now known as Chesters Roman Fort and Museum, run by English Heritage.  In Wainwright’s day you just knocked up the caretaker and paid a fee. Now there is a proper visitor entrance, a shop, cafe and toilets.  He then heads west to Borcovicium, better known as Housesteads, where he encounters a single solitary car in the car park – a bit different to when we visited a few years ago.  Like Chesters Roman Fort, Housesteads has a cafe, shop and toilets for modern day visitors, and is also run by English Heritage.

 

               Chesters Roman fort gate. Photo by Steven Fruitsmaak, via Wikimedia Commons.

After exploring the Wall, Wainwright heads south again via Appleby-in-Westmorland, with the village of Dent in Dentdale as his last overnight stop.  He gives a vivid description of Dent, which is across the border in Cumbria, as being “like a fairy tale”, with narrow twisting streets paved with cobbles, “one block of jumbled masonry”.  Then homeward via Ingleton (famous for its waterfalls and dominated by the peak of Ingleborough) to Settle.  He arrives back home relieved that there is not going to be a war (for now – little does he know what is coming).  Anyone wanting to retrace this part of his journey but reluctant to do it on foot can take the Settle to Carlisle Railway, which has stops at Dent and Appleby. 

                          Main Street, Dent. Photo by Parrot of Doom, via Wikimedia Commons.

For A Pennine Journey Route Summary, follow this link.

WOMEN OF WINDERMERE: DEEP WATER/THE LAKE DISTRICT

Deep Water follows the lives of three women, Lisa, Kate and Roz, all living among the beautiful scenery of the Lake District, but whose lives are considerably less perfect than the surrounding landscape.  Much of the filming took place around Lake Windermere, which forms a watery backdrop to many of the scenes.  Which is appropriate enough, as the series is based on the Windermere series of novels by Paula Daly.

Sunset in Bowness Harbour, Bowness On Windermere, England. Photo by Michal Klajban, via Wikimedia Commons.

One of the most striking properties used in the filming is the house where Kate (Roslind Eleazar) lives, set in an elevated position overlooking the lake.  The real-life property is near the village of Hawkshead, near the western shore of the lake.  Anna Friel’s character Lisa, meanwhile, lives in the countryside near the lake.   The kennels she runs are seen surrounded by the dramatic slopes which are a feature of this area.  Roz’s house is in the village of Staveley, a couple of miles to the east of the lake along the A591.  Staveley Primary School was used for the school gate scenes which form the common denominator between the three women.



There is a lakeside cafe which in the series is where Roz’s brother works and which is the scene of a number of meet-ups such as in episode 1, where Kate meets Lisa to discuss her son’s bullying.  The cafe which was used for these scenes is the Bluebird Cafe on Coniston Water, named after the jet-powered boat which killed Donald Campbell as he attempted to break the water speed record on the lake in 1967.  

Bluebird Café - geograph.org.uk - 900291. Photo by David Palmer, via Wikimedia Commons.

Lake Windermere is the largest of the Lake District lakes, as well as being the largest natural lake in England.  The main tourist centres are Bowness-on-Windermere and Ambleside, and there are frequent departures on leisure boats linking the two, as well as Lakeside at the southern end.  Coniston Water is a short distance to the west of Lake Windermere.  The National Trust runs trips on the restored Steam Yacht Gondola, which leaves from a pier near the Bluebird Cafe.  Hawkshead is a village a short distance from the west shore of Lake Windermere with a good range of pubs and cafes, as well as an array of shops, including a large branch of the Hawkshead outdoor clothing and equipment chain.

Map of the area.

A GOLDEN WONDERLAND IN THE LAKE DISTRICT: WORDSWORTH

The Lake District is a joy to visit at any time of year, but at this time of year it is particularly beguiling.  Quite apart from the ever-present lakes and mountains which make this part of England so special, the visitor is confronted with the charming sight of lambs frolicking in the meadows, while the whole scene is embellished with a generous coating of yellow in the form of the vast numbers of daffodils which spring up at every roadside and lake shore, and in every piece of woodland.  The English poet Wordsworth was so entranced by this scene that it formed the basis for what was probably his most famous poem, "I wandered lonely as a cloud".  In the poem Wordsworth describes "A host of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees; Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."  The poem continues in this vein, recalling how the daffodils "stretched in never-ending line" and were "tossing their heads in sprightly dance".  

William Wordsworth was well qualified to describe the beauties of the Lake District, since he spent a large portion of his life there.  He was born in the gracious riverside town of Cockermouth just to the north-west of the Lake District, where he spent his childhood in a house on Main Street, now open to the public as Wordsworth House and Garden, owned by the National Trust.  He did a bit of travelling, spending some time in Germany with his sister Dorothy and fellow poet Coleridge, but he found himself pining for the Lakes and eventually he moved back there, taking up residence with Dorothy in Dove Cottage in Grasmere, formerly an inn called the 'Dove and Olive Bough'.  They were later joined by William's childhood friend Mary, who he married in 1802, and it was during the early years of his married life that "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud", also known as "Daffodils", was published as part of a collection of poems.  There was another poet called Robert Southey living nearby and Wordsworth, Southey and Coleridge came to be known as the 'Lake Poets'.  

Dove Cottage - Wordsworth's Home (3721733134).  Photo by Greg Willis, via Wikimedia Commons.

Grasmere is the name of both the village where Wordsworth lived and the lake on which it is situated, right in the heart of the Lake District.  There are a range of restaurants, inns and shops in the village, while Wordsworth fans can visit Dove Cottage, run by The Wordsworth Trust.  Displays on view include the 'Grasmere Journal' kept by Dorothy.  The garden, which is also open to visitors, has been restored to the half wild state that the Wordsworths created from local plants and materials.  On  his death in 1850 William Wordsworth was buried in the graveyard of St Oswald's Church in Grasmere, where the grave is still on view.  Visitors to this beautiful corner of the Lake District at this time of year will have no trouble imagining where the poet got his inspiration from.

Grasmere - geograph.org.uk - 7738. Photo by Val Vannet, via Wikimedia Commons.

Map of Cockermouth.

Map of Grasmere.