Inspiring Places to Visit

Blackwell
Britain's finest Arts & Crafts movement house was designed in 1898 by Hugh Bailey Scott as a holiday retreat for the Holt Manchester brewing family. The interiors are a rich blend of beautiful carved oak panelling, plasterwork, painted tiles, stone arches, stained-glass galleries and painted silk wall coverings. Colours, patterns and textures change from room to room, blending with each other and with the superb views across Lake Windermere. There's a shop with a good selection of Arts and Crafts books, a small exhibition area, and a stylish tea room with a veranda overlooking the lake.
• About 15-minutes drive from Fellside Studios, about a mile south of Bowness, just off the A5074.
• Admission charges £6.00 adults and £3.50 children, with reductions for families.
• Open all year except Christmas to mid-January, daily from 10.30am to 5pm (4.00 in winter).
• Tel 015394 46139.
• Web: www.blackwell.org.uk

Ruskin's Brantwood
Ruskin was an artist, writer and thinker who changed our world. His ideas influenced Tolstoy and Ghandi, and his art inspired William Morris and Frank Lloyd Wright. So it's no surprise that his home for the second half of his life should have a resonance to still affect us all. Set in newly-restored gardens looking across Coniston, Brantwood allows us to experience Ruskin's art and words in the rooms where he lived and worked. We love everything here: the house, the exhibits, the wonderful gardens, the magnificent views, and Jumping Jenny's café !
• East side of Coniston Water, 2 miles from Coniston, off B5285 towards Hawkshead.
• Admission charges £5.75 adults to house and gardens, £4.00 adults to gardens only.
• Open every day, 11am - 5.30pm, except mid-November to mid-March, Wednesday to Sunday only, 11am - 4.30pm.
• Tel: 015394 41396.
• Web: www.brantwood.org.uk

Beatrix Potter's Hilltop, Near Sawrey
Beatrix Potter faithfully copied the interiors of many traditional Lakeland farms and cottages as the basis for her children's book illustrations, and here you can see her own original farmhouse that she lovingly restored and worked on for almost 38 years. It's now a shrine to Beatrix Potter; but one that she set up for herself, with all her treasured possessions preserved exactly as she wished. Only six rooms, but a great deal to see: carved oak furniture, china, local paintings, William Morris wallpaper, and even the dolls house that appears in The Tale of Two Bad Mice.
• Follow signs from Hawkshead village, on B5285, about 5 miles from Ambleside, or take the ferry across Windermere.
• Open April to end of October, 10.30am to 4.30pm Saturday to Wednesday only.
• Admission charge £4.50 adult, £2 child with discounts for families.
• Tel: 0870 458 4000.

Wordsworth's Dove Cottage, Grasmere
The simple and tiny cottage where William Wordsworth's lived with his sister Dorothy from 1799 to 1808, and where he wrote much of his greatest poetry. A truly magical place. Can be very busy in summer – next door is the Wordsworth Museum and Jerwood Centre, a modern extension with an excellent exhibition program reflecting the Lake District's major significance in English poetry and literature.
• About a 20-minute drive from Fellside Studios (or a good afternoon's walk!)
• At the entrance to Grasmere village on A591 Ambleside to Keswick road.
• Open every day, all year, 9.30am to 5.00pm.
• Admission charges £7.50 adult, £4.50 child with discounts for families.
• Tel: 015394 35544.
• Web: www.wordsworth.org.uk

Holehird Gardens, Troutbeck
A secluded delight, with breathtaking views across Windermere and the Southern Fells, quietly situated just off the Patterdale Road about a half hour walk from Fellside Studios. There's a classic walled garden, several Victorian alpine glasshouses, a pond, a cascade and a tarn, and countless (carefully labelled) varieties of shrubs, flowers and trees, including several National Collections – all maintained by volunteers. There's absolutely nowhere else like it. It's open all hours, every day of the year. It's completely free, just a donation box, and it's often blissfully quiet.
• Signed entrance off the A592 towards Windermere, about 1 mile from Fellside Studios.
• On foot there's a protected footpath alongside the A592, but here's also a small car park.
• Free admission, always open.
• Web: www.holehirdgardens.org.uk

Holker Hall Gardens, near Cartmell
One of Britain's greatest gardens. Over 25 acres of still evolving, and beautifully maintained formal gardens, set in 200 acres of open parkland. Lovely fountains, fascinating Victorian garden layouts, breathtaking colours (especially in May), a lovely new wildflower meadow and labyrinth, and of course the magnificent Holker Great Lime tree (an awe-inspiring 7.9 metres in girth). You can also visit Holker Hall or its Motor Museum, but we'd more highly recommend the excellent tea room and restaurant.
• A bit over an hour's drive from Fellside, alongside Windermere on the A592, left onto the A590, then watch out for brown and white signs.
• Open Sunday to Friday mid-March to the end of October, 10.30am - 5.30pm.
• Tel: 015395 58328.
• Web: www.holker-hall.co.uk

The Museum of Lakeland Life
Off the beaten track in Kendal, but well worth a visit, this little museum gives a vivid insight into Lakeland's past. Recreated Lakeland farmhouse rooms and workshops reveal how rural people lived and worked, and how different life was before machines replaced labourers and craftspeople. There are fascinating displays of Arts and Crafts cottage industries, including Langdale Linen, Ruskin Lace, the Keswick School of Industrial Arts, and (our favourite) Stanley Davies furniture. Next door is Abbot Hall, one of Britain's best small art galleries, specialising in painters with Lake District connections, including Romney, Ruskin and Turner.
• Enter Kendal from the south exit off the A591, follow the one way system, and just past Kendal Parish Church turn right into a car park signposted Abbot Hall.
• Open every day, 10.30am - 5.00pm (4.00pm in winter).
• Admission £4.50 adults and £3.20 children.
• Tel: 01539 722464.

Duddon Ironworks
Also off the beaten track, this recently restored site is apparently the world's most complete surviving example of a charcoal-fired blast furnace. From 1736 to 1866 it used huge quantities of local charcoal and iron ore from Furness coppice forests to produce pig iron for ship's anchors in Bristol. Now a peaceful and beautiful place, but once at the heart of the Industrial Revolution.
• 1 mile north west of Broughton-in-Furness just off the A595 at Duddon Bridge.
• Park at lay-by next to the bridge and follow signs.

Stott Park Bobbin Mill
Another reminder of the Lake District's industrial life just 200 years ago. Follow the progress of local coppiced wood on guided tours though this working bobbin mill, one of many in this area which supplied the Lancashire cotton industry in the 19th century.
• On west side of Lake Windermere, 1 mile north of Newby Bridge.
• Entrance charges £3.80 adults, £1.90 children. Open 10am to 6pm daily from April to end September, and 10am to 4pm on Thursday to Mondays during the rest of the year.
• Tel: 015395-31087.

Monica & Brian Liddell
Fellside House, Troutbeck, near Windermere, Cumbria LA23 1PE, England

Tel: 015394 34000
E-mail: brianfellsidestudios.co.uk