Beatrix Potter’s Farms
Graham Kilner

Beatrix Potter’s life and exploits have been well explored and continue to fascinate. However, questions remain about how many farms she actually owned, managed and bequeathed to the National Trust. With the assistance of the National Trust and through detailed research, this book is an attempt to clarify this complex tale.

For those with an interest in the Beatrix Potter’s extraordinary life, or the National Trust Story, this small volume adds clarity to her estate building and, through the first-hand reminiscences of members of the tenant farming families, provides an insight into what it was like to live and work on her farms in Little Langdale in another age.

The Author

On retirement from a life in civil engineering, Graham Kilner took a first and second degree in history to pursue his great interest. He spent a decade working with the Armitt Library, Ambleside, researching and lecturing on a variety of local subjects including: the history of conservation in the Lake District and the Rev. Hardwicke Rawnsley, the literary community of Ambleside and the life of Beatrix Potter, a former member and benefactor of the Library. He is currently researching the history of road-making in England.

Paperback booklet 40 pages.

210mm x 148mm x 4mm

First published March 2021

Printed and bound in the UK

ISBN 978-1-80049-385-8

Price £7.50 plus p&p.

Fine Lines
Deborah walsh

William Green, surveyor, artist and guidebook writer, first set eyes on the mountains of the Lake District in 1779. Making his home in Ambleside 20 years later, he witnessed the end of an era; the decline of the water-powered industries that the area had relied on for centuries, and the rise of a new enterprise, tourism.

The Ambleside of the 17th and 18th centuries was fast disappearing under a relentless tide of gentrification. Two centuries later Green’s meticulous etchings remain almost our only glimpse into that earlier world, with its rattling mills bounding Stock Gill and rambling galleried buildings clustered between the rocky outcrops. 

In an age of artifice Green made it his objective to adhere as faithfully as possible to nature. As his friend Hartley Coleridge put it, ‘he taught his pencil as he taught his children, to speak the truth.’

The author

Deborah Walsh was born and brought up in Kendal. She studied at Queens University Belfast and Sheffield University and has degrees in Archaeology and Mediaeval History. She has worked as an archaeologist for various National Parks, Government Agencies and as a partner in the Brigantia Archaeological Practice, specializing in the fields of historic building recording and landscape interpretation. In 2011 she became curator of the Armitt Museum and Library in Ambleside, a post she held for a decade. In 2021 she established the Black Powder Press as a new and potentially subversive enterprise. She lives and works in Ambleside.

Paperback book 112 pages.

250mm x 225mm x 10mm

First published December 2021

Printed and bound in the UK

ISBN 978-1-80068-379-2

Price £17 (plus £3 p&p).

LANGDALE: IN A TIME OF CHANGE (2019)
Deborah walsh

Catalogue for the exhibition of the same title held at the Armitt Museum, Ambleside in 2019.

This book explores the social history of Great and Little Langdale through the 20th century, largely through the words and memories of those who lived there.

Entertaining Ambleside: A History of the Assembly Rooms (2018)
Deborah walsh

The Ambleside Assembly Rooms, now more familiar to most as Zeffirelli’s, has been at the centre of social and cultural life in the town for over a century. Established as a venue for lavish social gatherings of the Edwardian era, it has since undergone many changes, culminating in its present use as an acclaimed cinema, music venue and restaurant. This book charts the evolution of a building which still lies at the heart of Ambleside life.

Langdale: In a Time of Change

Smithereens: A Kurt Schwitters Miscellany

Journeys in Stone

Ambleside Miscellany