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Hill Top, Lake District

 

This image is by Chris Brown and is copyright free

Hill Top Farm at Near Sawrey in the Lake District was the home of Beatrix Potter, although for much of Beatrix Potter's life Hill Top was more of a bolt hole than a home. She had been born in London in 1866 to wealthy and very conventional parents who did not think it proper to educate girls. Beatrix remained in her stultifying family home for many years into her adult life. Thankfully there were family holidays to relieve the monotony, and these were often taken in the Lake District. Here Beatrix could enjoy the close observation of nature which she loved, and which might have led to a career as a scientist, if scientific careers had been open to women at that time. Instead a talent for observation and recording of detail went into drawing, and also the illustration of letters telling stories of her pets which she would send to the children of a former governess.

 

It was during a holiday to the Lake District that the family became friendly with Canon Rawnsley. Rawnsley was a keen naturalist, and was to go on to become one of the founders of the National Trust. Rawnsley encouraged Beatrix with her drawing and writing, and in 1901 she turned to him for help with an idea of publishing a book of her stories. After being turned down by a number of publishers, a private publication of The Tale of Peter Rabbit was arranged. This event changed Beatrix's life. With the book in print, she sent it to Warne and Co. who decided to publish. The book sold well and was followed by others. In 1905 a story about a hedgehog who runs a laundry business Mrs Tiggywinkle, sold 36,000 copies in the first few weeks after publication. Sadly Beatrix's publisher Norman Warne to whom she was now engaged, died of leukemia that summer, and it must have been a welcome distraction to use some of her new earnings to buy a pretty little farm she had seen on holiday in the Lakes with her parents. This was Hill Top, a place she could run to, escaping London and her family. For eight years she came to Hill Top, for a few weeks at a time, and most of her books were written here. The Pie and the Patty Pan, written at the time of the Hill Top purchase, has the farm as a backdrop. Jemima Puddle Duck is one of the best known of Potter's Hill Top stories. This story has been described by biographer Margaret Lane as "Beatrix Potter's poem about the farm itself, its human and animal characters, the northern summer beauty of its fields and woods". The association of scenes described in Jemima Puddle Duck and Hill Top is so close that visitors who know the tale will easily be able to see themselves in the scenes depicted: "The idyllic landscape in which Jemima, wearing poke-bonnet and shawl, sets out to look for a secret nesting place, is precisely what one sees, even today, after passing through the gate at the bottom of the farm yard. If you turn around, in the very spot where she stands at the end of the story, you look straight up the farm yard to the house" (The Magic Years of Beatrix Potter by Margaret Lane P 155). It was very much Beatrix Potter's wish that nothing changed at Hill Top. She stipulated in her will that the house should be maintained as if she had popped out to the post. Beatrix Potter may have lived under the control of her parents for the first part of her life, but once she escaped she became rather formidable. It seems in character that she would want to continue keeping a close eye on Hill Top, even after she died.

Hill Top today is a museum to Beatrix Potter. When she died in 1943 she left the house to the National Trust on the understanding that it would be maintained exactly as she left it. Original manuscripts are available for viewing. Information in each room shows how different parts of the house were used in illustrations for Beatrix Potter's stories.

Hill Top is an extremely popular tourist attraction. Admission is by timed ticket, and on the busiest days entry might not be possible. Try not to visit in school holidays.

 

Opening Hours: National Trust opening hours are complex. Please use contact details below.

Address: Hill Top, Near Sawrey, Ambleside, Cumbria LA22 0LF. Click here for an interactive map centred on Hill Top.

Access: Wheelchair access to lower floors, and to part of the gardens. Contact the property before you visit.

Contact:

telephone: 015394 36269

fax: 015394 36811

e-mail: hilltop@nationaltrust.org.uk

web: www.nationaltrust.org.uk