Hawkshead

Hawkshead
Lancashire
Ann Tyson's Cottage
Location
Grid reference:	SD3598
Location:	54°22’30"N, 2°59’56"W
Data
Population:	519  (2011)
Post town:	Ambleside
Postcode:	LA22
Dialling code:	015394
Local Government
Council:	Westmorland & Furness
Parliamentary constituency:	Westmorland and Lonsdale
Website:	http://www.hawkshead-village.co.uk

Hawkshead is a village and parish in the Lancashire Lake District, which attracts tourists to the South Lakeland area. The parish includes the hamlets of Hawkshead Hill, a mile to the north-west, and Outgate, a similar distance north.

Geography

Hawkshead is just north of Esthwaite Water, in a valley to the west of Windermere and east of Coniston Water.

History

The township of Hawkshead was originally owned by the monks of Furness Abbey; nearby Colthouse derives its name from the stables owned by the Abbey. Hawkshead grew to be an important wool market in mediæval times and later as a market town after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1532. It was granted its first market charter by King James I in 1608. In 1585, Hawkshead Grammar School was established by Archbishop Edwin Sandys of York after he successfully petitioned Queen Elizabeth I for a charter to establish a governing body.

St Michael and All Angels was founded in the 12th century, it is a fine example of an English rural parish church.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Hawkshead became a village of important local stature. Poet William Wordsworth was educated at Hawkshead Grammar School, whilst Beatrix Potter lived nearby, marrying William Heelis, a local solicitor, in the early 20th century.

With the formation of the Lake District National Park in 1951, tourism grew in importance, though traditional farming still goes on around the village. Hawkshead has a timeless atmosphere and consists of a characterful warren of alleys, overhanging gables and a series of mediaeval squares. It is eloquently described in William Wordsworth's poem The Prelude.

Much of the land in and around the village is now owned by the National Trust. The National Trust property is called Hawkshead and Claife.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Hawkshead)

• Official Hawkshead website
• Hawkshead and Claife information at the National Trust
• Hawkshead in an Illustrated guide to the Lake District
• Hawkshead Grammar School Museum
• Photographs of Hawkshead
• The Benefice of Hawkshead with Low Wray and Sawrey and Rusland and Satterthwaite