Everybody at some time in their travels through the Lake District visits Bowness-on-Windermere. Unashamedly given over to tourism, it has a cheerful cosmopolitan character far different to how it must have been in the 11th century when the Vikings were the first to settle here. Windermere is named after the Viking chief Vinand, after whom the lake was named 'Vinand's Mere', and for centuries it remained little more than a settlement. It is likely that other settlers had been here before the Vikings, probably since the Romans (or even prior to that), because of links to Roman Roads in the area. It was pretty much a simple fishing village until the arrival of the railway in the 19th century when it grew into a sizeable village to cater for the influx of visitors, mostly from Lancashire and Yorkshire. Many wealthy industrialists settled here and built large homes, many of which today are luxury hotels.
This is the boating centre for England's busiest lake, for at the height of the season it has over one thousand five hundred craft upon its waters. There have been ferries across Lake Windermere for at least five hundred years. The earliest recorded craft were rowing boats, in the days when passengers would be expected to help with the rowing. Bowness is a regular intermediate stop for the passenger vehicles which run throughout the season from Lakeside, at the southern end of Windermere, to Waterhead at the head of the ten-and-a-half mile lake. Opposite Bowness Bay are the pretty islands which appear almost to cut the lake in half. On Belle Isle is the unusually designed Round House built in 1774 for a Mr English, but later acquired by the Curwen family. J C Curwen was responsible for much of the tree planting which now beautifies the island as well as the east slopes of Claife Heights, above the lake's west shore.
Whilst here, a visit is suggested to the fascinating Windermere Steamboat Museum, half a mile to the north of Bowness on the lake shore. It has Victorian and Edwardian steamboats and other vintage craft including 'Esperance' a craft made famous by Arthur Ransome in his book 'Swallows & Amazons'.
The area is of course renowned for its hotels and guest houses of which there are literally hundreds. A place of interest for many visitors is St Martin's Church which was built in 1483 to replace a previous church which had been destroyed by fire. Inside will be found heraldry together with their respective arms along with the Stars and Stripes of one George Washington dated 1403, an ancestor of the first President of the USA. Under the chancel is the mass grave of forty-seven people who were drowned when a ferry in which they were travelling capsized on the way to a wedding in Hawkshead. It is an interesting building, its most remarkable feature being the considerable quantity of ancient window glass which it contains - the greater part having been brought from Cartmel Priory around 1623 and originally used in the earlier church.
The oldest part of Bowness is behind the church and is known as Lowside. Here will be found a number of narrow streets and cottages which are more in keeping with Old Bowness. The New Hall Inn, is better known as the 'Hole in't Wall', dating from the time when ale was served through a hole in the wall into the adjoining smithy. Back in 1857, one Thomas Longmire was the landlord and was a famous Cumberland wrestler. Charles Dickens, a great admirer of Longmire, often staying at the Inn. The oldest building in Bowness is now better known as The Spinnery Restaurant.
Laurel Cottage was the first local school here. Today a delightful guest house establishment, it was originally a fee paying Grammar School founded in 1613, although it may have been run in the church for some years until ‘Laurel Cottage’ was built, probably in 1637. Eighty to a hundred scholars, boys and girls, were taught at 'Laurel Cottage' There were no scholarships unless they could write with the facility of two syllables. School hours in those days had to coincide with daylight hours: hence 8am to noon and then 1pm to 4pm in winter; and 9am to noon and 1pm to 5pm in summer. The earliest names recorded of a school masters were Thomas Wells and Richard Powley. Children were educated here until 1836 when a retired business man from Bolton built a new Grammar School on a hill above Laurel Cottage.
There are so many tourist attractions here - certainly too many to mention. Of particular importance however is the Old Laundry Visitor Centre, the home of the 'World of Beatrix Potter' exhibition with Peter Rabbit and Mrs Tiggy Winkle very much in attendance. Beatrix Potter enthusiasts should additionally look out for the 'Peter Rabbit and Friends' shops which have an enormous display of souvenirs relative to her work. Going north from Windermere will be found the National Park Visitor Centre at Brockhole. Here there are displays and lectures, and a lovely garden by the lake shore with superb views.
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