The Lake District took a step back in time to help celebrate the start of English Tourism Week.
Visitors saw Queen Victoria and other 19th century celebrities take an iconic train journey that became extremely popular in Victorian times yesterday, Monday March 16.
Queen Victoria, played by Rachel Bell, vice chair of Cumbria Tourism, travelled from Oxenholme to Windermere by Northern Rail train and then onto Grasmere in a four-in-hand horse-drawn carriage.
They were greeted by Grasmere Gingerbread inventor Sarah Nelson with freshly baked slices of her confectionary before showing them inside the iconic building.
Queen Victoria travelled through Cumbria many times aboard the Royal Train, visited the ruined Furness Abbey in 1848 and tourism expanded significant in the Lake District during her reign from 1837 to 1901.
The specific journey to Grasmere – the heart of the Lake District’s 19th century literary Romantic phenomenon – surged in popularity when the Oxenholme to Windermere rail track opened in 1847.
Joanne Hunter, co-director of Grasmere Gingerbread was behind the special celebratory event.
She said: ““After William Wordsworth described Grasmere as the ‘the loveliest spot that man hath found’, Victorian visitors flocked here to experience the Lake District scenery which inspired his revolutionary Romantic poetry.
“From curious passengers on the train to spectators along the nine-mile route and a cheering crowd in Grasmere, everyone was positively thrilled by the spectacle of our magnificent four-in-hand horse-drawn carriage sailing past.”
Rachel said the re-enactment was a special way to celebrate English Tourism Week in Cumbria and to showcase and celebrate tourism’s annual £4.6 billion contribution to the Cumbria’s economy and its people and places.
She said: “The sector supports 43,500 full-time equivalent jobs in unique businesses, right across the county, that offer outstanding quality and experiences, such as Grasmere Gingerbread which has attracted national and international visitors to the Lake District for 172 years.”
She added: ““It felt wonderful to play Queen Victoria and, in doing so, help to promote tourism which is the lifeblood of the Lake District economy.”
Famous Cumbrian Victorian figures who joined Queen Victoria in the re-enactment were:
- William Wordsworth – played by Neil Salisbury, museum assistant at Hawkshead Grammar School Museum
- Dorothy Wordsworth – played by Caz Graham, Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Cumbria
- John Ruskin – played by Emil Molineaux, Brantwood maintenance officer;
- Beatrix Potter – played by Jo Binns, in-house actress at The World of Beatrix Potter
- Arthur Ransome, author of Swallows and Amazons – played by Miguel Bernalte, general manager of the Windermere Hotel
After looking inside The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop, the Victorian party visited the graves of William and Dorothy Wordsworth in the next door St Oswald’s churchyard.
“It felt slightly surreal playing William Wordsworth when standing before his actual grave,” said Neil.
Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake supplied the costumes and Mountain Goat transported the characters from Grasmere to Oxenholme. Community Rail Cumbria and Northern Rail also took part in the re-enactment.
