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Coniston is in a beautiful and romantic valley. Its charms have lured some remarkable people since the first Viking settlers came, and the valley had an interesting and varied history. Tennyson, for example, spent his honeymoon here in 1848, at Tent Lodge, a house that Turner had painted many years before. W G Collinwood moved here, as did Arthur Ransome. In 1967, Donald Campbell died tragically whilst seeking to break his own world water speed record on the Lake. On the village green will be found a memorial to him.
Before the copper mines became an integral part of Coniston life, and going back to Jacobean times, Coniston was a scattered rural community mainly settled around Coniston Hall, built in 1270 by the Fleming family. Nearby, at Bowmanstead (near the Ship Inn), is where the bowman lived, producing bows and arrows, as well as men to defend the Hall. The Hall is the oldest building hereabouts, and was originally just a pele tower. In 1962, the property was purchased by the National Trust with the grounds these days being used as a popular camp site. Also owned by the National Trust is Yewdale Farm, two miles north, and this is interesting for offering a good example of a typical Cumbrian spinning gallery.
The village situated at the head of Coniston Lake was most likely a Saxon settlement initially. The present church here was completed in 1891, though the village has had a chapel since early days, certainly before 1500. John Ruskin is buried in the churchyard, and close by is the Ruskin Museum which contains many items relating to him, amongst which is his fine collection of mineral specimens.
On everybody's itinerary has to be a visit to Brantwood, the home of John Ruskin from 1872 until his death in 1900. Ruskin - writer and philosopher - had a powerful influence on Victorian attitudes to art and politics. His eloquence, his critical faculty, and his appeal to the best in human nature, were irresistible. He was literally a 'giant of his time'. He made Brantwood, on the east side of Coniston Water, his home. He bought it as a 'small place' (his words) from one William Linton, a wood engraver and magazine editor, and added to it over the years. Ruskin loved the across-lake views from the house (as does everybody else who sees it) and also from the grounds where he laid out paths and had a seat made for himself near a waterfall. Brantwood is undoubtedly one of the most beautifully situated houses in the Lake District. The house, literally became an 'intellectual power-house', and one of the greatest literary and artistic centres in Europe.
In 1196 Coniston Water was known as Thorstanes Watter, the name originating from its owner Thorstein, one of the districts Viking settlers. It is the third largest lake in the Lake District and, like its larger sisters, has always been a highway. Once, ore from the mines and slate from the quarries was barged down the lake and, at other periods between the 11th and 17th century, iron ore was brought up the lake to be smelted at lakeside 'bloomeries' where wood for charcoal-making was in good supply. When the railway came to Coniston, the railway company set up a steamer service on the lake. Two boats were in operation, and one of them the 'Gondola', an iron steamship of elegant design, still survives, having been beautifully restored by the National Trust. It is in service again today, and visitors will undoubtedly enjoy a trip on it.
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