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Windermere(See also Bowness-on-Windermere , Windermere
Steamboat and Museum
Wordsworth wrote a poem about the view from Orrest Head: Standing alone, as from a rampart's edge, I over looked the bed of Windermere, Like a vast river stretching in the sun. . . . . The railroad never continued through the Lake District, partly due to Wordsworth. Although he loved the area himself, he didn't wish to share it with others and used his influence to help terminate the rail line at Windermere. He wrote: "Is there no nook of English ground secure,
Holehird Gardens, 1½ miles from Windermere, sit on a hillside at the southern
end of Troutbeck valley. The ten acres of gardens, located on the grounds of a grade II listed
building-now the Leonard Cheshire Home for the Disabled-provide spectacular views across the lake
to the fells beyond. A walled kitchen garden, rock garden, orchard, heathers and shrubs make for
a peaceful stroll. Windermere, a mile from the lake of the same name, is not as popular as its neighbor, Bowness-on-Windermere, but has its own charms as a Lakeland get-away.
Holehird Gardens, Windermere Lake Cruises See Bowness-on-Windermere for Photos courtesy of Julian Thurgood , Tony Richards and Ian Jones © 1997-2008 by The Cumbria Directory. Reproduction of this work in whole or in part, including images, and reproduction in electronic media, without documented permission from The Cumbria Directory is prohibited. |
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The town of Windermere was only a scattering of
homes until 1847 when a railway came to the area and terminated here. The rail station was named
Windermere, and the village obligingly changed its name from Birthwaite (meaning 'clearing in the
birches') to match that of the station. The railroad brought hoards of holidaying Victorians to
the lake. Hotels and guesthouses, built of the local stone and slate, followed. The Windermere
Hotel, built in 1847 specifically for rail travellers, was ideally sited opposite the station.
The town became such a popular destination that it was listed in an 1860 guidebook. Today, many
of the former wealthy Victorians' homes are hotels and lodging houses.
School Knott, east of Windermere,
provides a good spot for panoramic countryside vistas. Orrest Head (c750 ft high), opposite the
rail station, is an ideal place to view the central fells, the Yorkshire Pennines, and the
lakes.
There are two churches in the
town: St John the Evangelist and St Mary's, which has some Victorian stained glass windows.
The garden has a national collection of
astilbes, hydrangeas and polystichum ferns. The gardens are run by the Lakeland Horticultural
Society.
Location Map of