Hawkshead: Beatrix Potter guided walk with Alison Pickering

About

Trace the steps of Beatrix Potter to discover the actual locations in Hawkshead which became settings for some of her stories. On this guided walk, we will see the places she captured in her realistic watercolours and sketches, modelling some of the story characters on people she knew in the community. There will be short extracts from her letters and her Journal to give a fuller picture of this strong woman who was so much more than a naturalist, artist and storyteller. Beatrix Potter – later Mrs Heelis – arrived as a tourist and stayed to become a farmer, Herdwick sheep breeder, country woman and pioneering conservationist.

Discover the stories of the mundane, the mischievous and the magical, including an eccentric friend with a ghost, a doctor who played golf and even where she got her shoes mended! A guided walk of less than two miles on level ground, exploring in and around the village of Hawkshead in the Lake District.

The meeting place is by the benches outside the public toilets / Hawkshead Chocolate Factory.

About the guide:
Alison Pickering lives close to Ambleside and is a Blue Badge Guide, recognised as the gold standard for tourist guiding in the UK. She offers knowledgeable, friendly, accessible and well-researched specialist village walking tours (Grasmere, Hawkshead and Ambleside) as well as tours with a private professional driver. With a real interest in local and social history, Alison volunteers in her spare time at Beatrix Potter's Hill Top and is a member of the Beatrix Potter Society, and has previously volunteered at the Wordsworth Grasmere Museum.
Alison is also a member of the Institute of Tourist Guiding and the British Guild of Tourist Guiding. You can contact her through either of these institutions or her own website. Alternatively, you can follow her on Instagram as "Ambleside Alison".