Potter's World

Beatrix had always loved the Lake District since childhood holidays, and now, with the money she was earning from her Peter Rabbit books she was able to buy Hill Top Farm in the village of Sawrey. She kept on the farm manager, John Cannon, and invested in a flock of Herdwick sheep. She could not stay in her beloved new home because she was expected to take care of her parents in London, but it was her first step to independence, and she visited it whenever she could.

Beatrix Potter had always been passionately interested in 'real' animals, and after her marriage to William Heelis she was able to settle in the Lake District permanently, and devote herself almost entirely to her farming.

Beatrix took a very active part in caring for her Lake District farms. Dressed in her clogs, shawl and old tweed skirt, she helped with the hay making, waded through mud to unblock drains and searched the fells for lost sheep. She said she was at her happiest when she was with her farm animals.

With her shepherd, Tom Storey, she bred Herdwick sheep - a rare and threatened breed indigenous to the Lake District. She encouraged the revival of Herdwick sheep in all her farms, and her sheep won most of the major prizes at local shows.

In 1943, Beatrix became the first woman to be elected President of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders' Association, which was a great achievement and a sign of the high regard in which she was held by the local farming community. Beatrix Potter used Hill Top as the backdrop for several of her tales.

The first was The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly Poly Pudding, which she wrote in 1906 having purchased the farm with the proceeds of her books. She included the favourite views of her new home in the Tales of Jemima Puddle-duck and Pigling Bland; while Tom Kitten and his sisters climb up the rockery wall at the bottom of Hill Top garden; and Ginger and Pickles' shop is set in Sawrey village. In 1947 the National Trust opened the house to the public and receives thousands of visitors a year.