Borrowdale and Bassenthwaite

Two Herdwicks in Borrowdale ©Andrew Locking ©Andrew Borrowdale in Herdwicks Two Borrowdale and Bassenthwaite The largest of the 13 Lakeland valleys, the period native settlements survive at stone balances improbably on one edge Borrowdale and Bassenthwaite valley Aughertree Fell. and is today owned by the National Trust. extends from the high fells of Rossett Also under the National Trust’s protection Pike and Esk Hause in the south to the Borrowdale was a key area for the is the photogenic Ashness Bridge, offering northern edge of the Caldbeck Fells and Company of Mines Royal, set up by the spectacular views over Bassenthwaite the wide, coastal plain of the Solway English Crown in 1568. The remains of Lake and the River Derwent. Firth. It includes the major glacial lakes Mines Royal copper and lead mines can of Derwent Water and Bassenthwaite as be seen at Goldscope in the Newlands Poets Southey and Coleridge both well as the busy tourist centre of Keswick. valley, along with the copper mines took up residence at various times at of Long Work, St Thomas’ Work and Greta Hall in Keswick, while the poet The valley is also home to rare upland Dalehead. What’s left of a unique mining Shelley also lived briefly in Keswick. The hay meadows and its steep fellsides operation can be found on the slopes Wordsworths were frequent visitors to carry one of the largest oak woodlands above Seathwaite in Borrowdale where the region and Borrowdale features in in England, containing many rare ‘wad,’ or pure graphite, was mined from many of William Wordsworth’s poems. native species. the 16th century. In the 1800s, Keswick became the world centre of pencil The Borrowdale and Bassenthwaite Borrowdale and Bassenthwaite have manufacturing and the Keswick Pencil Valley is also highly important for the been settled from at least the Neolithic Museum, on the site of a 1920s factory, early conservation movement. John period and there is evidence there was tells the story. Slate and wool are also Marshall, and others keen to preserve a stone axe production site on Carrock vital industries to the region. the beauty of the area, bought key Fell. Other early monuments from this parts of Borrowdale in order to prevent period include the large stone circle In 1778, Thomas West’s guidebook damaging development. Canon at Elva Plain, east of Bassenthwaite identified a series of key viewing Rawnsley, vicar for many years of the Lake. The small hillforts at Castle Crag stations around Derwent Water and Parish of Crosthwaite, led the battle in Borrowdale and Castle How by Bassenthwaite and by the late 18th against a proposed railway on the west Bassenthwaite Lake may date to either century, Keswick began to develop as a side of Derwent Water to the Honister the later prehistoric or early medieval tourist centre for the wealthier visitors. The slate quarries, and the National Trust, of periods. There is a Roman fort at Bowder Stone became, and still is, one of which Rawnsley was a founder, made its Caermote, north of Bassenthwaite Lake, the quirkiest tourist attractions. Located first purchases of land in the English Lake and a well-preserved group of Roman in the ‘Jaws of Borrowdale’, the enormous District here at Brandlehow. lakesworldheritage.co.uk #WeAreTheLakes Buttermere from Hindscarth Edge ©Andrew Locking ©Andrew Hindscarth Edge from Buttermere Buttermere Nestling serenely in the north-west in Buttermere and it is an important account of the true story of Mary corner of the Lake District, Buttermere’s grazing place for the hardy Herdwick Robinson in his popular novel ‘The classic U-shaped glacial valley contains breed. Other industries here included Maid of Buttermere’. Mary was the not one but three lakes – Buttermere, some limited mining, thanks to the daughter of the landlord of the Fish Inn, Crummock Water and Loweswater. discovery of haematite in the west side a hostelry that still welcomes visitors in Buttermere runs out from the central of the valley and some iron production the valley today. fells, through the meandering Derwent in medieval times. The remains of 14 iron Valley on towards the mouth of the smelting furnace sites, or bloomeries, The story of conservation around lovely Solway Firth, creating a scene can be found around Crummock Water, Buttermere is a fascinating one. In that Alfred Wainwright described in his Loweswater and east of Buttermere. But 1814, with the encouragement and ‘Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells’ it is the results of the mining of Lakeland involvement of Wordsworth, John as a place where “loneliness, solitude slate that dominate the landscape at Marshall, the Leeds industrialist, bought and silence prevail that make the the head of the valley at Honister Hause. extensive landholdings around the lakes scene unforgettable”. of Buttermere, Crummock Water and In their 1799 walking tour, both Loweswater, with the aim of maintaining Neolithic or Bronze Age settlement in the Wordsworth and Coleridge visited the beauty of the area. Large parts valley can be traced through the rock art Buttermere. In his ‘Notebook’, Coleridge of the valley have subsequently been at Mill Beck, Buttermere and Crummock wrote lyrically of a striking yew tree. This purchased by the National Trust and the Water. There are also a number of was the same tree later celebrated by whole of the valley head of Buttermere prehistoric summit cairns, including Wordsworth in his poem ‘Yew Trees’. is covered by a restrictive covenant those at Carling Knott and Grasmoor, Although damaged and reduced by a agreed with G. M. Trevelyan in 1937. and it is thought that an Iron Age hillfort storm, the yew tree still stands today Canon Rawnsley also managed to stood at Loweswater. Early medieval on the bank of the Whit Beck, behind lead a successful protest to prevent the and Norse settlement is reflected in the village hall. JMW Turner’s visit to the building of a railway from Keswick to words such as ‘thwaite’ (clearing), ‘scale’ valley was transformative for him as an Buttermere to serve the Honister slate (summer farm) and ‘kirk’ (church) in artist and his spectacular ‘Buttermere quarry. Together, these conservation local place names. Lake, with Part of Cromackwater, activities have led to the preservation of Cumberland, a Shower’ was shown in a strikingly beautiful and pastoral valley. Sheep farming, as it has been for an exhibition at the Royal Academy. centuries, is the principal occupation Broadcaster Melvyn Bragg wrote an lakesworldheritage.co.uk #WeAreTheLakes Steam Yacht Gondola on Coniston Water ©John Hodgson ©John Water Coniston on Gondola Yacht Steam Coniston Lying in the central southern part of the private landlords up until the 17th century The pursuit of beauty extended to Lake District, the valley of Coniston and and this was also a period of much landscape design, an example of this its linear, glacial lake, Coniston Water, change to agricultural practices. being Monk Coniston, bought by Beatrix is guarded by the high, rugged fells of Potter from the Marshall family, and then Coniston Old Man and Wetherlam and Industry has played an important later acquired by the National Trust. overlooked by extensive woodlands and role on the character of Coniston. forest plantations. Iron was smelted from the medieval William Wordsworth was a pupil at the period until the 20th century using grammar school in Hawkshead and The legacy of mining and quarrying local charcoal and copper mining also wrote of Coniston and its people in his on the fellsides, pastoral farming on continued into the early 20th century. poems, most notably in ‘The Prelude’. lower ground, woodland industries, and Slate was also a vital resource, with JMW Turner created ‘Morning among the the busy village of Coniston, all come quarrying providing employment for Coniston Fells’ one of his key oil paintings together in this striking and characterful more than 100 men in the Coniston area here, and in the later 19th century working landscape. in the 1830s. There is still some slate leading art critic John Ruskin took up quarrying going on today. residence at Brantwood, directly looking There’s evidence of prehistoric activity on over the lake. the low fells in the form of burial cairns The quarries and mines led, in turn, to a and small stone circles. Early medieval demand for gunpowder. The gunpowder Coniston has inspired everything from settlements give themselves away works of the Coniston valley helped to heavy industry to great art over the through the survival of Old Norse place contribute a large amount of the United centuries and still remains as a valley names. Much of the valley’s agricultural Kingdom’s needs for gunpowder from of extraordinary contrasts, textures landscape also owes its appearance to the late 18th to the early 20th century. and beauty. this period. Medieval monasteries owned a lot of the land in the area between In 1859, the Coniston railway opened Coniston and Windermere, with the and there was an immediate influx of abbots at Furness Abbey granted almost tourists, with the Steam Yacht Gondola all of the land in High and Low Furness built to provide leisure trips on Coniston in 1127. Water to entertain the increasing number of visitors. Large areas of the valley were used for deer parks by both Furness Abbey and lakesworldheritage.co.uk #WeAreTheLakes Swinside Stone Circle ©John Hodgson ©John Circle Stone Swinside Duddon Also known as Dunnerdale, the more obvious medieval settlement centre 1820. The Duddon Sonnets received more intimate and narrow valley of the River in the Duddon Valley, although nearby praise in his lifetime than any other of Duddon has no lake of its own and is Furness Abbey was influential here, with his works.

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