The Lake District has been getting quite a bit of TV publicity recently.  We’ve seen a presenter “swim-hiking”, a hotelier doing an overnight two-length swim in Windermere – that is, the full length of Windermere and back – and although I am not an addict myself I understand that even Coronation Street has been showing a honeymoon by the lake. All of this is on top of the weather reports and recovery from the recent flooding.

Here, however, is an item that I’ve not seen anywhere else apart from the National Park web site, an important meeting tomorrow, 20th January :

Lake District National Park – Bassenthwaite Reflections

A pioneering nature reserve will be the focus of a public meeting to forge future action plans for the special wetlands area. The Lake District’s first reserve of its kind at Dubwath Silver Meadows, near Bassenthwaite Lake, will come under discussion at a gathering on 20 January. People will be asked for ideas and help in safeguarding the future of the seven hectare site which is managed by a local farmer for wetland flora and fauna. Heritage Lottery Fund backed Bassenthwaite Reflections …..

On the artistic front there’s a new exhibition starting at Brantwood, Coniston.

New Exhibition at Brantwood Coniston

Coniston artist Joy Grindrod says, “This Saturday is the start of my latest exhibition “Peat Light”, held in the Severn Studio at Brantwood, Coniston. There will be new work showing, many are of local scenes and some Scottish landscapes. It will be showing until 7th March …”

Some Interesting Links – Recent Items on Other Sites

• Britain’s big freeze in pictures: Derwentwater in Lake District turns to ice (telegraph.co.uk)
• Country diary: Lake District (guardian.co.uk)
• Fell walker swept away by avalanche survives (guardian.co.uk)
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Usually when I recommend a Lake District book it’s one that I already own myself. I prefer to do this so that the blog does not degenerate into an undiscriminating commercialism.

Today, though, I’m making an exception. Although I’ve seen and admired Mark Denton’s The Lake District: The Panoramas on a number of occasions, for some unaccountable reason I’ve never actually bought a copy. However, I’ve seen this book of remarkably beautiful photographs praised so many times that I’m putting it up here anyway.

This would make a marvellous gift for a friend or family member who loves the English Lake District, or even to introduce someone for the first time to this wonderful part of the country.

There’s no doubting that Mark Denton is an outstanding landscape photographer. He has worked not only on rural but also on city landscapes including books on Edinburgh and London.  You might also like to take a look at his Yorkshire volumes: Yorkshire Moors & Wolds and The Yorkshire Coast.

Searching through old photos today I came across the following picture of Gondola by a jetty on Coniston Water. It was taken on a cloudy day more than twenty years ago, and is not the world’s best photography, but I think it captures something of the atmosphere of Coniston on many days of the year – cloudy and not so bright – all part of the fascination of the Lake District.

When I first heard of the plan to broadcast this series of programmes on life in the English Lake District I did a search and the first thing that came up on Google was a page on the ITV.com website about a drama series called The Lakes, from the late 1990s.

It didn’t seem very appealing, especially if it was to be a re-run. But was it to be a new series on the same theme? After all, the last series was quite a success, capturing Bafta nominations and critical congratulation. So I thought I’d better do a search on the ITV.com website itself. Ah! That’s better! Not drama – at least, not fictional drama.

Starting with Episode 1 of The Lakes we’ll be seeing pictures of the lives of many people living and working in the Lake District during a busy summer season. I’m looking forward to January 4th, 8:00pm, ITV1.

In several earlier posts I have referred to Beatrix Potter, her association with the Lake District and her home at Hill Top Farm which is now in the care of the National Trust. In an earlier post about the day last year on which my wife and I found both of the National Trust’s Beatrix Potter locations closed I blogged about their incomprehensible policy of of having both the house at Hill Top and the Beatrix Potter Gallery in Hawkshead simultaneously closed every Friday.

However, not far away on the other side of Windermere, in Bowness, is The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction – open every day of the week, which especially for children who’ve been disappointed at Hill Top and Hawkshead is especially important on Fridays.

This Beatrix Potter attraction in Bowness-on-Windermere is the only one in the UK licensed by Peter Rabbit’s publishers. It is open almost all around the year, closing only on Christmas Day and for part of January. (Check their web site for the latest information on opening dates and times).

All 23 of the tales of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck, Squirrel Nutkin and the other animal friends are brought realistically to life indoors, even with the smells of the country farmyard.

In the “The Miss Potter Room” there is an introduction to the life of Beatrix Potter, both as Miss Potter and as Mrs Heelis with fascinating exhibits and films. You can also buy Peter Rabbit gifts and collectibles in the shop, and enjoy some good food in the Tailor of Gloucester tea room.

Special Beatrix Potter events are organised throughout the year, including Peter Rabbit Tea Parties (for which you are advised to book in advance).  As this item is posted in December 2009 the attraction’s website already has listed many events for 2010.

Next to the entrance into Grasmere village churchyard is an old house.  It was once a schoolhouse but in 1854 Wilfred and Sarah Nelson moved in with their family of two daughters, and this became the home of Grasmere Gingerbread.

Sarah was at this time in her late-thirties, and had been employed in a number of wealthy homes in the kitchens.  It was in one of these that she had experimented with her recipe for gingerbread and brought it to perfection.

During the second half of the nineteenth century  not only did Lake District tourism grow in general terms but more specifically the flow of visitors to Grasmere increased enormously following the death of the poet William Wordsworth.  The Wordsworth family graves became a place of literary pilgrimage, and for fifty years Sarah supplied a growing clientele with her unique gingerbread until she died in the early years of the twentieth century.

Today, more than one and  a half centuries later, Grasmere Gingerbread is still made to Sarah Nelson’s original recipe, a closely guarded secret, and is sold from the same house by the entrance to Grasmere village churchyard to its many thousands of visitors every year.  I suspect that Sarah, for all her belief in her unique formula, would have been astonished to know the number of countries in the world to which her gingerbread has travelled.

The Westmorland Gazette reports that plans are afoot for major changes to the provision of tourist advice in the Lake District.

Several existing advice centres are to close and in future it looks as though information provision will increasingly have to be funded by the tourist industry. I’m not going to express an opinion on the proposals as I have not been able to look at them in any detail. However, I hope that, whatever is eventually decided, there will continue for years to come to be adequate access for Lake District visitors to reliable advice in a wide range of locations.

New £300k plan to provide Lake District tourist advice centres
MORE than £300000 could be made available to help set up new tourist information facilities across South Lakeland.

Winter visits to the Lake District are the subject of a 12-page beautifully illustrated feature article in the January issue of Country Walking magazine. The idea that Cumbria is a northern county to be visited only in the summer is well and truly demolished by its photographs. The Lake District is beautiful throughout all seasons of the year.

Most appropriately, given last month’s disastrous “once in a thousand years” rainfall and flooding of many areas of the Lake District (not only those prominently featured in the national news media), the article concludes with a reminder that it is still possible to donate to the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund and Fix the Fells.

For those who are not feeling up to energetic outdoor exploration during the winter months there are of course many indoor attractions and activities that are open all year round, mostly of a unique Lake District character unavailable anywhere else.  I referred to some in the Coniston area in a recent post on this site, and plan to add more along this line in the near future.

Finally for today, I see on the Ordnance Survey’s online-magazine blog a suggestion that hikers might expand their interests to take in rock climbing.

Lake District hikers may enjoy rock climbing

Ordnance Survey, 8 Dec 2009

Those on a hiking or camping holiday in the Lake District may wish to follow the advice of the Daily Mail and indulge in some rock climbing while they are there.

I do agree, but given that it’s now cold, wet and in high places icy, I hope that anyone taking up the suggestion will get good advice, watch the weather and the clock, go prepared and well-equipped, and not add to the mountain rescue statistics.

And then finally finally, don’t forget to subscribe to Country Walking magazine so as not to miss an issue. Click on the image below to subscribe.

Natural England today announced that a consultation is being launched to consider extensions to the Lake District National Park. Two of the areas being examined are the Birkbeck Fells to Whinfell, and Helsington Barrows to Sizergh Fell and the Lyth Valley. A third area covers the Orton Fells which the proposal says will be considered with a view to joining either the Lake District or the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Further details on the Natural England site at:

Consultation announced for proposed extension to Yorkshire Dales and Lake District National Parks
11 December 2009. Natural England today announced that it will launch a public consultation on four proposed extensions to the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks. The new areas lie between the two National Parks and the consultation will seek views on whether they have the qualities necessary to be in a National Park, whether they should be given National Park status, and where the boundaries should be drawn. …….

As I started to write this item for our blog the newspapers, radio and TV, both local and national, were full of Lake District and wider Cumbrian stories.  More than a foot (>300 mm) of rain in little more than twentyfour hours had swollen rivers, formed lakes where previously there were none, and generally made the lives of many Cumbrian residents a misery.  Bridges had been destroyed, and it was just being reported that a policeman attempting to save others had been lost as the bridge on which he was standing was swept away.  Clearly this has been an exceptional weather event which is going to have massive human consequences. I trust that by the time this post is due to appear on the blog the big clean-up will be well under way.

It was, however, not water to this extent that was on my mind when I first thought of writing about things to do in and around Coniston in the winter.  Rather it was a simple response to the fact that things to do indoors take on an added significance in the colder months of the year.

For many decades one of the economic difficulties faced by the Lake District tourism industry was the shortness of the season.  Gradually this has been changing. Of course, the enthusiastic outdoor person may laugh at wimps who want to be inside in the warmth.  As someone who used to love the battle against an icy wind, and revel in pressing footsteps deep into mountain snow, I can empathise with that.

As the years have worn on, however, I’ve come to appreciate that pretending to be Hilary on Everest or Scott in the Antarctic is not the only way to enjoy the uplands in winter.  There are warmer occupations.  So what does the area immediately around Coniston have to offer the person who prefers to keep reasonably warm and dry?

The Ruskin Museum

In Coniston village itself there is the Ruskin Museum.  This should not be confused with Brantwood, which was John Ruskin’s home on the opposite bank of the lake from 1871 until his death in 1900, and which I’ll mention in a later paragraph. The museum is in the village itself and although it includes a considerable amount of Ruskin-related material it also covers a far wider range of local interests including the Coniston Coppermines in “Coppermines Valley” up the slopes of Coniston Old Man above the village.

Originally established by the writer and philosopher W. G. Collingwood in 1901 it has been extended substantially down the years.  It has informative displays on the local (now defunct) copper mining and slate industries as well as many local crafts. Most recently the part of the museum devoted to Donald Campbell and his waterspeed records has been greatly expanded.  Sometime in 2010 it is planned to bring the restored Bluebird to a permanent display here.

Brantwood

What John Ruskin would have thought of careering up and down the Coniston lake at 250-300 miles per hour we’ll never know, but certainly he considered the view across the water to Coniston Old Man from his study window to be more than outstanding.  I guess that under today’s planning regimes he would not have been permitted to develop the old cottage into the house as it now is, but thankfully he lived before the age of such restraints and we can now visit Brantwood to enjoy exhibits of the art and philosophy of this highly influential artist, writer and social reformer of the mid/late-nineteenth century.

To quote the Brantwood web site, its displays and activities “reflect the wealth of cultural associations associated with Ruskin’s legacy – from the Pre Raphaelites and Arts and Crafts Movement to the founding of the National Trust and the Welfare State.”  Over the years I’ve paid many highly enjoyable visits to Brantwood, and particularly recall an exhibition describing the influence of Ruskin’s thinking on Ghandi.

Brantwood, however, is not only concerned with the past.  It has a lively programme of contemporary style events.  For example, the Severn Studio has an exhibition under the title “Space and Place” showing the recent work of five south Cumbrian textile artists.

Oh, and there’s also some good food to be enjoyed!  As the house doesn’t open until 11:00 am you might want to enjoy the Ruskin Museum in Coniston village in the morning and then go on to Brantwood for lunch before touring the house in the afternoon.

Places Nearby

The above two places can easily occupy a relaxed winter’s day before the darkness falls and one retreats to a warm Coniston area hotel or guest house. A second day might involve a trip to nearby Hawkshead with its Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter connections. Or, a little further away, how about the Laurel and Hardy museum in Ulverston?

Take Care in the Winter Outdoors

Finally, if you decide that it’s the outdoors for you, then please make sure that you’re properly equipped, check the weather forecast and the daylight times … and don’t take risks on the fells.  The rescue services have enough on their plates without having you as another of their statistics.

Check Winter Opening Hours

One important point about visiting anywhere in the Lake District during the winter months (or for that matter any tourist destination around the whole of the UK outside of the big cities) is:  Check the winter opening hours.  Not only are daily times usually shorter than in the summer, but some venues may be closed totally for several weeks, especially in late-December and January. Check the relevant websites carefully before travelling far:

Brantwood – home of John Ruskin

The Ruskin Museum in Coniston village

The Beatrix Potter Gallery, Hawkshead