A South bound journey this morning and a stone’s throw from Windermere we find Troutbeck, http://www.troutbeck.org/ a pretty little stone village slightly off the beaten track and a snap shot of Lakeland life off the tourist trail. Rolling hills and a sleepy pace compliment the rustic style village shop and tea room, our destination for both elevenses and lunch today. In between our tea room visits we did manage to squeeze in a guided tour of Townend, a small Nation Trust property nestle amongst the hills and sheep farms high above the lakes.
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/townend/
Townend.
Owned and live in by the Browne family since the 1500’s the house is a time capsule of history through the centuries. Evident throughout all of the rooms are additions made by each generation of the family. Some built extensions whilst others carved every piece of wood from top to bottom but all in all, over hundreds of years, each addition, alteration and change has helped to create a wonderfully characterful and eclectic collection. Our guide John was excellent and obviously very enthusiast about the property and its history. Not your standard National trust property but very enjoyable never the less.
16th Century Townend barn, still in use today.
Whilst enjoying our lunch we got talking to a couple from Hertfordshire who too were on holiday in the Lake District. They had recently joined the National trust so of course, we took the opportunity to bombard them with information and recommendations both locally and nationally! Having spent some time talking, they finally decided to visit Wray Castle, another National Trust property around the lake some 15 miles away. Having pulled away in our car we saw them walking down the road in the middle of nowhere. We stopped and wound our window down and shouted “if you keep walking you should get there by night fall!”. It transpired that the couple had left their car in Townend car park and walking into the village! Upon driving away we heard the lady exclaim “bye now, love you!”, it must have been an automatic response, it kept us laughing for ages!
Following our second (and equally delicious) visit to the tea room, we made our way back to Grasmere for our second stop of the day, Dove Cottage and the William Wordsworth Museum.
https://wordsworth.org.uk/visit/dove-cottage.html
Our visit began with a guided tour of Dove Cottage, the home of William Wordsworth and his young family for 8 years.
Dove Cottage.
The ancient main road through the Lake District used to pass straight in front of the house and it was originally used as an inn. As time passed, the inn became the Wordsworths’ home and many of his major works were written during his time here. He makes several references to the people he met, the places he visited and the relationship his had with the surrounding countryside and the nature within. Following the tour of the cottage we learnt more about the Poet Laureate (which incidentally he turned down three times before finally accepting and through his entire time in the post didn’t actually write any poetry!) in the museum. The displays split Wordsworth’s life into childhood, formative years, adult life, life abroad and later life. A combination of original manuscripts, extensive archive material and in depth commentary made it a very interesting and informative read.
Our final stop of the day was Allan Bank, the home that Wordsworth moved too with his growing family once they had outgrown Dove Cottage.
Allan Bank.
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/allan-bank-and-grasmere/
Now in the care of the National Trust, the house has undergone some dramatic changes very recently. Up until 2011 the house was tenanted by the National Trust and unfortunately a fire started gutting most of the property. Having re-housed the existing tenants they soon decided that they preferred their new place and as such the trust were left with an empty shell devastated by fire and nothing to do with it. As an experiment, the trust decided to try a ‘soft opening’, welcoming local visitors and recommendations but not listing the property on the website or in the guide book. The opening was a resounding success and despite the lack of advertising, they welcomed 27000 visitors in the first year alone, enough to undertake some basic repairs and open a tea room. Now in it’s third year, the visitor numbers continue to increase and the house has been temporarily presented as the bare shell. The staff and volunteers have created areas that are very hands on and interactive. They encourage you to take your drinks from the tea room around the house, take time to read a book, paint a picture or spend time relaxing with some crochet.
View from Allan Bank
Craig’s painted view from Allan Bank!
Throughout the house the trust is asking visitors how they’d like Allan Bank to present it’s story to visitors. Should it be renovated? How should it be dressed? Should it be dressed and renovated? We always prefer to visit properties that are dressed and renovated and so our suggestion was ‘Allan Bank – the house that members built’. We suggested selling tickets for various renovation workshops to members and under the guidance of craftsmen, undertake projects throughout the house as part of a learning experience. This way, the course fees pay towards the renovation, it provides work for local craftspeople and members feel that they have contributed to the history of the building whilst work is completed. We’ll have to wait and see…
The Big Man, The Pretty One & The Animal 