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Day 3 Great Lakelanders

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Following our wonderful breakfast we board our coach to visit the Armitt Museum and Library in Ambleside. Founded in 1909 by Mary Armitt, the museum contains an astounding collection of art, archaeology, archives, books, geology, photography and local history. In 1943 Beatrix Potter bequeathed her complete collection of over 450 fungi, microscopic, natural history and archaeology watercolours to the Library and many of these are on display. There is also a library focused on the Lake District, interactive displays and a shop selling a wide range of locally made gifts and books.

After morning coffee at the Ambleside Artists’ Courtyard which displays a selection of ceramics, paintings, jewelry and textiles and time to walk around the many gift and specialist shops in Ambleside, we then travel to Bowness on Windermere to visit “The World of Beatrix Potter” which is an animated display of the animal characters which featured in Beatrix Potter’s many books, complete with the sights, sounds and smells of their countryside homes. Afterwards the tour resumes traveling to visit an exceptionally well preserved and carefully restored house in the Arts and Craft style, Blackwell.  It’s one of Britain’s finest houses from the turn of the last century, designed by M. H. Baillie Scott as a holiday retreat for a wealthy brewery owner. Blackwell survives in a truly remarkable state of preservation retaining many of its original decorative features. The period rooms are carefully furnished with the blend of Arts and Crafts furniture and early country made pieces advocated by Baillie Scott, containing furniture and objects by many of the leading Arts & Crafts designers and studios, furniture by Morris & Co and Voysey, metalwork by W. A. S. Benson and ceramics by Ruskin Pottery and William de Morgan.

After lunch we journey across Lake Windermere to the impressive Gothic Revival house of Wray Castle. This magnificent country retreat was built in 1840 by a retired surgeon and is linked to Beatrix Potter who spent a vacation at the house in Summer in 1882. It was there that she met the Vicar of Wray, Hardwicke Rawnsley, a writer who was very influential in encouraging her painting, at a time when most people did not think young ladies should consider such artistic occupations. In 1929 Wray Castle and 64 acres (260,000 m2) of land were given to the National Trust by Sir Noton and Lady Barclay. We will be exploring these extensive grounds that stretch along the shores of Windermere, that include a large number of fine specimen trees amongst which include a mulberry tree allegedly planted by the poet William Wordsworth himeself. The woodland around Wray castle is particularly noted for its wildlife and we will have time to examine some of the flora and fauna which made a lasting impression upon the young Beatrix in her nature studies, before returning by boat to Ambleside and then on back to our hotel for the evening.

Highlights:

Pictures from Wainwrights Walks – Wray Castle and Lake Windermere

A nice article with photos about Lake Windermere  “Journeying Through Time on Lake Windermere”