Beatrix Potter in Near Sawrey, Cumbria

Hill Top, Near Sawrey (Sawrey consisting of the hamlets Near Sawrey and Far Sawrey). This is the farm the very successful Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) – author and artist (a word she scorned in relation to herself) – moved to in 1905, shortly after her fiancé Norman Warne's death. At the time John Cannon managed the farm and lived there with his family .

Potter wanted the Cannons to stay there, so had an extension built, which is dated 1906. She married local solicitor William Heelis in 1913.

The entrance hall.

The parlour, originally a bedroom.

A glimpse of the kitchen.

Beatrix Potter only rarely used this room, and never slept in this bed.

The sitting room.

On the road down from Hill Top:

'Buckle Yeat

is featured in many

of Beatrix Potters [sic]

books, including The Tale

of Tom Kitten, Pie &

The Patty Pan and

Piggling Bland'

Beatrix Potter bequeathed over 4000 acres to the National Trust, including fifteen farms and many cottages.

Edmund Potter in Dinting, Glossop, Derbyshire

'EDMUND POTTER

DL, FRS, MP, JP

1802–1883

MILLOWNER, PHILANTHROPIST

FOUNDED DINTING VALE

PRINTWORKS IN 1824 AND

LIVED NEAR

THIS SITE AT

DINTING LODGE

1842–1861'

This plaque was unveiled on 6 September 2014 and Dinting Lodge no longer exists. Edmund Potter was born in Ardwick, Manchester, and was the paternal grandfather of the children's writer, illustrator and conservationist Beatrix Potter (1866–1943).

Edmund Potter published several short works, including Calico Printing as an Art Manufacture: A lecture (1952), A Few Pages on Taxation (1959), and Trades' Unions and Their Tendencies (1861).

Below is a link to an earlier post I made on Edmund Potter's grave in Gee Cross, Hyde, Cheshire:

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Beatrix Potter's relatives in Gee Cross

Beatrix Potter's Relatives in Gee Cross and Stalybridge, Greater Manchester

In the churchyard of Hyde Chapel, Gee Cross, Greater Manchester, is the family grave of the Potter family – Beatrix Potter's parents and paternal grandparents.

'In loving memory of

EDMUND POTTER

DIED 26^TH OCTOBER 1883

AGED 81 YEARS.'

Also of JESSY POTTER [née Crompton]

WIDOW OF EDMUND POTTER

DIED 9^TH SEPTEMBER 1891

AGED 90 YEARS.

[...]

also of RUPERT POTTER

2^ND SON OF THE ABOVE EDMUND POTTER

DIED 8^TH MAY 1914 AGED 81 YEARS.

ALSO OF HELEN POTTER [née Leech], WIFE OF THE ABOVE

RUPERT POTTER

DIED DECEMBER 20^TH 1932 AGED 93 YEARS.'

And in Stalybridge:

'BEATRIX POTTER

(1866–1943)

Renowned children's story writer author

and artist of the famous Peter Rabbit book.

Beatrix's maternal grandparents John and Jane [née Ashton] Leech

bought the Gorse Hall Estate after their marriage and

built the Gorse Hall Mansion which was demolished in 1910.

Born in London, Beatrix in later life made several visits

to her grand parents and recorded her fond memories

of the place.

Unveiled by John Heelis OBE, great nephew

of Beatrix Potter's husband, William Heelis

on 23rd November 1999.'

Beatrix  Potter's mother Helen Leech was born at Gorse Hall. In 1909 George Harry Storrs of Gorse Hall was stabbed to death there by an attacker who remains unknown. His wife Maggie had the building demolished the following year and the hilly grounds now serve as an area for walks.

Chris Noonan's Miss Potter (2006)

After watching this movie yesterday, the lasting images in my memory are of the animated cartoons, which is by no means a good thing because they are one of the negative features of it.

Beatrix Potter was a naturalist, an artist, and a conservationist of note, and yet – in spite of director Chris Noonan's claims that he initially shyed away from this fimscript in horror of thoughts of cutesiness – 'cutesy' springs to mind here, as the film plays far too much on Potter's anthropomorphic characters as opposed to her other work.

The movie begins in 1902, when Potter (Renée Zellweger) secured a publisher (Frederick Warne & Co.) for her children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit, the first true edition of which she in fact self-published the year before (although the movie misleads the audience on this issue).

There are a few flashbacks to Potter's youth, but the essence of the story is the publication of Potter's children's work, her conflict with her parents and her developing romance with Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor) which ends in his death before the marriage, and a little detail near the end about Potter saving land in the Lake District from the developers – she left much of the land she bought to the National Trust.

Noonan was aware that Potter, as an independently minded woman, was somewhat out of step with the prevailing Victorian ethos (which of course prevailed even after the event), but it's a pity that the movie makes so many omissions and includes so much extraneous matter.

Beatrix Potter is worthy of far more than this.