LAKE DISTRICT INFORMATION

Whether you are planning a romantic weekend in the Lake District or you are planning to visit with the children, you will find plenty of things to see and do in Windermere, Coniston, Grasmere, Ambleside and Bowness, and a wide range of spa hotels, gueshouses and B&B´s to choose from. Some of the best places to visit in the Lake District include:

GRIZEDALE FOREST THE LAKE DISTRICT

At Cockley Beck, those wishing to test their motoring skills on Hardknott Pass cross the bridge over the Duddon. Otherwise keep straight ahead along Wrynose Bottom, source of the Duddon. Three Shires Stone offers a chance to park and stretch the legs before the steep descent into Little Langdale, having exchanged the Duddon for the Brathay. Join the A593 and go south to Coniston, following the road to Hawkshead. Just south of the village is a turning on the right to Grizedale Forest, developed on an 8,000acre (3,200hectare) estate purchased by the Forestry Commission in 1937.

During World War II, Grizedale Hall was used to house prisoners. After the war, the Commission pioneered the concept of a commercial forest to which the public is granted access in order to learn about the countryside and walk along way marked paths, adorned by fascinating sculptures, the work of young artists. From the deer museum, opened in 1956, has developed a visitor centre, forest shop, exhibition and tearoom. Also within the forest is Go Ape!, a high ropes aerial adventure course through the tree tops.

CARTMEL THE LAKE DISTRICT

Cartmel is a town famous for its horse racing and its superb location.Continue to Satterthwaite, Rusland, Bouth and the A590, where you turn left through Backbarrow and Newby Bridge to a right-hand turning for Cartmel. You'll notice, as the village comes into view, the upstanding and carefully preserved Priory, with the curious diagonal extension to its central tower.
The main fabric is original, created in 1188. A mother and son who drowned while crossing Morecambe Bay sands by the old low tide route from Hest Bank are buried next to the font.

Elsewhere in the village is the well-preserved monastic gatehouse, which was in use from 1624 until 1790 as a grammar school. It now belongs to the National Trust and is a Village Heritage Centre. Cartmel Races take place in an attractive parkland area. Grange-over-Sands lies just over the hill.

LAKE DISTRICT LANDSCAPES

Renowned throughout the world for the landscapes and beautiful scenery, the Lake District continues to attract thousands of visitors every year.Our knowledge of early life in the Lake District was transformed in 1947 by the discovery of pieces of chipped volcanic rock on the 2,000ft (600m) scree slope of Pike o'Stickle at the head of Great Langdale. This proved to be the site of a prehistoric axe factory, the first major Lake District industry, operating in Neolithic times, some 4,000 years ago.Until this find, it had been thought that penetration of Central Lakeland had occurred much later.

At Pike o'Stickle, and various other places in the high fell country, pieces of tuff, a particularly hard rock, were 'roughed out' with hammers made of granite. Then they were taken to the coastal strip for final shaping. Langdale rock was traded throughout the country. The Great Cum brian Axe was set to work to thin out the old forest, which extended far up the hillsides.
The Mesolithic folk had been hunters, their dreams haunted by such images as the red deer. In Neolithic times, people were clothing themselves with wool from the crag sheep, and burial urns were being used.

When the Romans swept north in the first century AD, the Lake District (like most of the North Country) was tenanted by a tribe known as the Brigantes. The most memorable of the ancient sites of the Lake District is that of a Roman fort beside Hardknott Pass It stood beside a road connecting Ambleside with the natural harbor at Ravenglass. The appreciable remains of the fort are on a spur of land at an elevation of 800ft (244m). Archaeologists affirm that the builders of this fort came from the Balkans.

LAKE DISTRICT ARCHITECTURE

Pele towers, three storey’s high and considered impregnable, are distinctive early tone structures, now (in most cases) forming the core of much larger buildings, as at Levens Hall, Sizergh Castle and Kentmere Hall.

At Burneside the pele tower, adjacent to a farmhouse, is partly ruined and gives an insight into the fine details of its construction. Pele towers date from the 14th century, when local people sought protection from repetitive Scottish raids. The circular chimneys so highly praised by Wordsworth were not so much for show as the best way of using irregular stones. Large houses of early date include Coniston Hall, with its cluster of circular chimneys above open hearths (to be seen after a short walk from the Gondola's pier at Coniston Water).

In the 17th century, with the Border troubles over and Lakeland families having security of tenure, there was a widespread reconstruction of farmhouses. A typical 17th century Lakeland farm was built of stone and slate wrenched from quarries near at hand, with small windows and a stout porch to protect the front door from the searching wind. Some, as at Hartsop and Yew Tree Farm near Coniston have 'spinning galleries'.Most of the dale-head farms are now owned by the National Trust. An outstanding example of a Lakeland yeoman's home is Townend at Troutbeck.

Apart from the typical Lakeland farms and cottages constructed, sometimes with difficulty, from the native stone and slate, the Lake District was the setting for some distinctive architectural forms imposed on it by outsiders and usually criticized by the neighbors for doubtful, if not bad, taste. One such structure is the Round House on BeJJe Island, Windermere, built on a whim by Mr English in 1774, badly damaged by fire in recent times and now in the course of reconstruction.

The most famous 'odd' building in the Lake District must be the Bridge House, sitting over a stream in Ambleside, which many people falsely claim was built by a Scotsman who wanted to avoid paying ground rent.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AND THE LAKES

Lakeland literature was made famous by Dorothy and William Wordsworth, brother and sister, who were born at Cockermouth and sojourned for a while in the South and returned to live in the Lake District, at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, in 1799. Dorothy's prose work is best seen in her Journal. Apart from his immense output of verse, William wrote a perceptive guide book about the area. Wordsworth and his friends, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey and Thomas De Quincey, became known as the Lake Poets. Southey, who settled for a while in Keswick, was appointed Poet Laureate in 1813.

The Lake District was home for an appreciable period to John Ruskin (at Brantwood, above Coniston Water), Hugh Walpole (at Brackenburn, near Grangein Borrowdale), Arthur Ransome (who drew partly on memories of childhood holidays at Nibthwaite, by Coniston Water for his Swallows and Amazons and many other books) and Beatrix Potter (Sawrey, near Hawkshead).

A stylish writer in prose and verse who drew much of his creative strength from contemplation of the basic rocks of the Lake District and life in his native, industrialized Millom, was Norman Nicholson. Lakeland novels were produced by Graham Sutton, who lived near Keswick. In his classic Fell Days, he reproduced his hilarious short story, 'The Man Who Broke the Needle', a reference to the celebrated 'stack' on the flanks of Great Gable.

LAKE DISTRICT ART

To list the artists who have been inspired by the Lake District would be to risk writer's cramp. They include the incomparable J.M.W. Turner, who on a tour in 1797, with the Romantic Age in full swing, produced Morning amongst the Coniston Fells (Tate Britain, London). Engravings and drawings in vast numbers were produced commercially by William Green, who settled in AmbJeside a few years later. John Constable, on a single visit (in 1806) made many sketches and watercolors but later confessed he had found the mountains oppressive.

Of modern artists, Delmar Banner had a genius for presenting Lakeland fells wrapped in cloud. A special tribute should be paid to the Cooper family. At the Heaton Cooper Studio in Grasmere is a permanent exhibition of water colors and a large collection of color reproductions of the Lake District by W. Heaton Cooper and his father, A. Heaton Cooper.

BYGONE LAKE DISTRICT

For centuries, the Lake District proper was a secluded, little-known corner of England, too close to the Scottish border for comfort, and keeping largely to itself. Sheep farming was a primary activity, and entertainment was homespun. Lakelanders developed a love of sport, song and dance (to the strains of fiddle or accordion). Vital events such as the shepherds' meet, when stray sheep from the 'gathering' were returned to their rightful owners, saw an explosion of local feeling in foxhunting and, later, hound trailing. At the end of the day, the Cumbrian dalesman resorted to hard drinking, lusty singing, and much eating of tatie pot (a local meat and potato stew).

Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling, which is claimed to be the type used when Jacob wrestled with the Angel, demands brains as well as brawn and began with schoollads 'takking 'od' (taking hold) on a village green. Such wrestling became respectable when it was to be seen at the Grasmere Sports, held in August, which was patronized by Lord Lonsdale from Lowther Park. Among the more bizarre forms of expression which once was in vogue and now survives at Egremont was gurning (pulling the funniest face) through a braftin (horsecollar). A novel event in Santon Bridge, attended by much drinking and hilarity, is a competition to find t'biggest liar, thus keeping alive a tradition dating back to Will Ritson, of Wasdale Head, a teller of outrageous tales.

The church has conserved much of the local culture. The Rush bearing dates back to the days when churches had earthen floors and on a specified day freshly cut rushes were spread on the ground. Rush bearings at Ambleside and Grasmere attract large crowds.

MODERN LAKE DISTRICT

The Lake District today is much different from the days of Victorian visitors, and although much of the landscapes and lakes remain the same, there is much more to do and see in Cumbria today than there was in the days of early tourism to the area. Windermere and Bowness boast a wealth of boutique hotels, guesthouses, B&B´s and some of the most famous Lake District attractions including the Beatrix Potter Attraction, Boat trips on Windermere, horse-riding, Lake District walks and some off the best restaurants, bars and hostelries this side of the Lake District. Whatever time of year you decide to visit the Lake District, you will always find plenty of things to see and do.