: a lasting legacy

SEVENTEENTH INTERNATIONAL STUDY CONFERENCE

BOWNESS-ON-WINDERMERE - 5 – 9 JULY 2016

Venue This Conference will be held in the Burnside Hotel in the lively town of Bowness-on-Windermere. The hotel is in lovely gardens overlooking Windermere itself.

Accommodation All the hotel rooms have en-suite bathroom facilities, there are ground floor rooms and lifts to the first and second floors. There is a limit to the number of single rooms available, so do consider sharing a twin room. All rooms have a hospitality tray. Hotel rooms will generally be available from 4 p.m. on Tuesday 5 July.

Non-resident attendance Non-residential day attendance (including all Conference events and meals except breakfast) is available if you prefer to make your own accommodation arrangements. We also offer the chance for Members, and local residents, to attend the morning lecture sessions and lunch. (See booking form for more details)

Travel Windermere railway station is just a mile and a half away. It is an easy station to use with direct access from the trains to the station forecourt where there are always taxis. We will be meeting two trains on the Tuesday afternoon with a minibus. Trains to Windermere run direct from Manchester Airport station and also connect with fast trains from London and Glasgow at Oxenholme and Lancaster. More details will be sent later.

You really will not need your own car during the Conference. The outings will be in smaller coaches or mini-buses. Knowledgeable Society Members will accompany the groups to give local and Beatrix Potter related information and to prepare you for any visits.

Provisional Programme Tuesday 5 July - The Conference commences with registration and a reception from 6 p.m. at the Burnside Hotel. After dinner, with invited guests, there will be time for socialising and a short Conference introduction.

Wednesday 6 July - Andrea Immel, curator of the Cotsen Collection, will give a talk In the shadow of Aesop: Beatrix Potter’s retelling of ‘The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse’. Fruing Warne thought that Beatrix Potter was squandering her talents by putting Aesop in her own words, but The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse is the culmination of a long line of memorable versions of ‘The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse’ in English. After coffee, James Rebanks, farmer and author, will be in conversation about his life, his sheep and his dogs with reference both to the past and to the future. Of Beatrix Potter he says: ‘Of all the writers associated with the , [she] ... is the one I love the most.’

After lunch there will be visits to Hill Top and to the Beatrix Potter Gallery with guided walks pointing out the Potter related buildings in .

Thursday 7 July - Our first speaker will be Karen Lightner, Head of Art and Literature at the Free Library of Philadelphia, whose subject will be The enduring popularity of Beatrix Potter’s art and she asks ‘How is it that Beatrix Potter’s drawings and paintings remain so beloved by children and adults?’, considering the question in reference to recent exhibitions and to artists influenced by her work. After coffee, Sophie Houlton, archivist at the will deliver a talk on the gift of Hill Top as part of the conservation history of the National Trust, exploring Hill Top and other property donated by Beatrix Potter in the context of the history of the places acquired by National Trust.

In the afternoon there will be a workshop led by the Basketmakers and Seatweavers Association.

Friday 8 July - Beatrix Potter and the ethos of rural conservation will be the title of our first presentation, given by Allison Adler Kroll, a graduate student in the history department at Oxford University. Allison will discuss the ethos of English cultural conservation developed over the later years of the nineteenth century. This directly influenced Beatrix Potter's well-informed efforts to protect the beauty of the Lake District, her pioneering environmental work and her involvement in conservation. Rowena Godfrey will be our final speaker with An unplanned legacy: Beatrix’s Journal and letters. Rowena says that Beatrix could not have expected that her coded Journal and her many letters would ever be published, yet they reveal her own interests as well as the social and historical background to her life and times.

In the afternoon there will be a choice of events including a visit to Glencoyne Farm, a typical hill farm on Ullswater; a visit to the Armitt Museum; and a walk.

Evening entertainment - there will be additional special events after dinner including a celebration of our Reading and Introducing Beatrix Potter projects and a participant led ‘My Beatrix Potter treasures’ evening.

On Saturday 9 July, resident participants will depart after breakfast. Transport to Windermere station will be provided.

Conference Fees Full residential, per person in double/twin room £630, in single room £760 Non-resident daily rate, per person £140 Morning lectures and lunch, per person £35

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Note - Mandy Marshall, Blue Badge Tourist Guide, is offering an additional one day tour for those who wish to stay on and explore more of the Lake District. Details and booking arrangements will be sent to all those who book the Conference. Beatrix Potter’s north country heritage

Pre-conference Holiday Tour - 30 June - 5 July 2016

'I am descended from generations of Lancashire yeomen and weavers; obstinate, hard headed, matter of fact folk ... As far back as I can go, they were Puritans, Nonjurors, Nonconformists, Dissenters.’

So wrote Beatrix Heelis in an essay about herself in May 1929 for The Horn Book magazine in Boston. The theme of our 2016 holiday tour is to discover this heritage to which Beatrix refers, visiting the northern industrial powerhouses that created the Potter wealth and therefore understanding the influences that shaped her wider legacy.

Mandy Marshall, a professional Blue Badge Tourist Guide, is being employed to lead our Holiday Tour this year. Mandy grew up in the Manchester area before settling in the Lake District.

We will stay for the first four nights at Pinewood Hotel, Handforth, Cheshire SK9 3LF (www.pinewood-hotel.co.uk). This hotel is just a fifteen minute taxi journey from Manchester Airport and railway station, and a few minutes from Wilmslow railway station (direct service from London Euston in less than two hours). All hotel bedrooms have en-suite bathroom facilities, there is a mature garden, and the hotel restaurant offers a wide selection of menu choices catering for various dietary requirements.

Thursday 30 June - The Holiday Tour starts with a welcome reception at 6 p.m. in the Pinewood Hotel, followed by dinner with the opportunity to meet other travellers and share our diverse backgrounds and common interests.

Friday 1 July - Mills of Cheshire and Unitarianism. Visits will include: The Silk Museum and Paradise Mill in Macclesfield. Quarry Bank Mill, Gardens and the Apprentice House, Styal. A working cotton mill showing how a complete industrial community lived - from the dissenting Greg family to the house for the working pauper children. Dean Row Unitarian Chapel, built in 1694.

Saturday 2 July - Liverpool. Experience the opulent wealth of this maritime city as shown in the city’s architecture and visit: The Walker Art Gallery, founded in 1874 and houses examples of Pre-Raphaelite works including Millais’ ‘Isabella’; the twentieth-century Anglican Cathedral, with Kitty Wilkinson (1786-1860) ‘Saint of the Slums’ tour; the Albert Dock and the Merseyside Maritime Museum with displays relating to the Lusitania, slavery, emigrants ...

Sunday 3 July - Manchester. Tour this vibrant city to get a flavour of what it was like in earlier times, with visits to: The Museum of Costume, Platt Fields; the John Rylands Library, Deansgate; Gaskell House, Plymouth Grove; and drive through street scenes familiar to Beatrix and her Potter relatives.

Monday 4 July - Saltaire World Heritage Site. Spend the day at this incredible wool weaving village, and see the weaving floor where eighteen miles of fabric were produced each day, and the adjacent one hundred and twenty-seven mile Leeds to Liverpool canal. There are exhibitions, specialist shops, cafes and a glorious park to explore. Dinner will be at The Plough, Lupton, before the Tour arrives at the Burnside Hotel in Bowness-on-Windermere.

Tuesday 5 July - Lake District. Explore a great deal of ‘Potter country’, taking the launch from Bowness to Lakeside (at the south end of Windermere), then the steam train to Haverthwaite to visit the Motor Museum. After lunch travel north to Coniston for the Ruskin Museum and then a scenic drive round Windermere to arrive back at the Burnside Hotel in good time to register for the Conference and to enjoy the evening reception and dinner.

Travel throughout the five day tour will be in a thirty-five-seater air-conditioned executive coach.

Meals - Lunches are left to individual discretion to ensure maximum flexibility. An evening meal is included on the Thursday, Sunday and Monday. On the Friday and Saturday, participants will be free to select their own choices from the hotel menu at their own expense.

Notes The number of participants will be limited to thirty for everyone’s better enjoyment of the Holiday Tour. This tour does include some walking every day – not hiking, but regular walking around and between venues to be visited, particularly on Friday, Saturday and Monday. Places will be offered first to Beatrix Potter Society Members also booking to attend the Conference.

Tour Fees - per person in double/twin room - £640 in single room - £795

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Please note that as these programmes go to print many months in advance of the events themselves, it may prove necessary to make minor adjustments, but we will try to keep these to a minimum.

Any questions? Contact Jenny Akester - [email protected] (01582 769755)

UK Registered Charity no. 281198 JA, December 2015