Beatrix Potter’s Lake District home, Hill Top, is preparing to open its doors for the 2022 season.
After a winter spent cleaning the farmhouse and looking after the items in their care, staff at the National Trust place are looking forward to welcoming visitors back on Saturday, just as Beatrix herself wanted.
Bought by Beatrix Potter in 1905 with the proceeds of her first ‘little books’, the 17th century farmhouse is a time-capsule of Beatrix’s life; filled with her belongings, the house appears as though Beatrix has just stepped out for a walk.
Beatrix used Hill Top and its gardens as the setting of several of her books, including The Tale of Tom Kitten and The Tale of Samuel Whiskers.
In an exciting year for the team at Hill Top, the Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature exhibition opens on Saturday at the V&A Museum in London. Created in partnership with the National Trust, a selection of the National Trust’s items belonging to Beatrix, including several from Hill Top and the Beatrix Pottery Gallery, are on display at the London museum.
The exhibition details Beatrix’s life starting with her childhood in Kensington and charting her journey to the Lake District, and explores the impact she had on the conservation and preservation of farming and the landscape.
Beatrix Potter spent the last 30 years of her life buying and protecting land in the Lake District, eventually leaving a significant bequest of over 4,000 acres of land, farms and cottages to the National Trust.
John Moffatt, General Manager of South Lakes says: “It’s always a special moment to open the doors at Hill Top to the first visitors of the year. Wandering around the rooms and gardens of Hill Top, visitors get a real sense of Beatrix’s personality, her passions and her love of the Lake District.
“Over the last year, the team have been working hard to support the partnership with the V&A and preparing for some of Beatrix’s items to be showcased to a new audience. We’re delighted to be sharing the story of Beatrix’s vital role in the conservation of the Lake District, the bequest she left the National Trust, which is still one of the biggest the trust has ever received, and how we continue her legacy today by caring for 20% of the Lake District with help from the generosity of our supporters.”
Helen Antrubus, Assistant National Curator at the National Trust says: “We’re delighted to be working in partnership with the V&A to shine a light on the full life and legacy of a remarkable, multifaceted woman. The National Trust is proud to care for the items and places which were special to Beatrix.
“From Hill Top, her traditional Lake District farmhouse filled with trinkets and furniture and still presented as it was in Beatrix’s lifetime, to the vast Monk Coniston estate and fourteen traditional Lakeland farms with their flocks of Herdwick sheep. Thanks to her pioneering conservation efforts and generous bequest of her homes, farms and land to the National Trust, we’re able to continue her legacy caring for the landscape, traditions and Lakeland way of life that inspired Beatrix so they can continue to inspire others.”
