Troutbeck Park Farm in the Troutbeck valley, Lake District National Park, Cumbria, England UK, once owned by Beatrix Potter
Image details
Contributor:
John Morrison / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
CNKRDDFile size:
28.5 MB (1 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
3856 x 2579 px | 32.6 x 21.8 cm | 12.9 x 8.6 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
11 April 2012Location:
Troutbeck ParkMore information:
Beatrix Potter married William Heelis in 1913, when she was 47, and for the next ten years lived the life of a country solicitor's wife at Castle Cottage in Near Sawrey. In 1923 Troutbeck Park Farm came up for sale. This large sheep farm of 1900 acres was spectacularly sited on the lower slopes of Kirkstone Pass. It was under threat of development and Beatrix Potter was keen to keep the farm together as working unit, so she bought it. Three years after she bought it, she decided to run the farm herself, with the aid of a shepherd, George Walker, who was the brother-in-law of Tom Storey who ran Hill Top Farm in Sawrey. Beatrix had a house built for the shepherd - to the right of the farm-house. They built up a celebrated flock of Herdwick sheep, a breed of small hardy sheep with course dark wool which is indiginous to the Lake District. Even in the 1920's they were a breed under threat as more and more farmers bred other breads of sheep with softer fleeces and more productive lambs. Beatrix Potter used the farm as a setting for the Fairy Caravan stories, and several other pieces. Some of her writing was done in a little study she had at the farm. In the 1930's Beatrix was made President of the Herdwick Sheepbreeders' Association.