Lakefield Cottages

We have recently commenced work at a property of historical interest at Near Sawrey in the Lake District. Throughout the course of 2019 we will be constructing a new dwelling adjacent to 1 Lakefield Cottages, and replacing the existing rear extension on behalf of a local housing trust.

No 1 is currently in very poor condition with a large rear garden plot and, whilst now overgrown, was once a well planted garden.

The previous occupant of no. 1 resided in the property for his whole life until 2017 and his mother worked as seamstress to Beatrix Potter (whose farm Hill Top sits approximately hundred metres North East of the site). It is believed with her salary from this job that the properties No 1 -3 were acquired over time before passing to the last occupant.

No 3 Lakefield Cottage is believed to be included in Beatrix Potter’s less well-known book called The Pie and the Patty Pan, dated 1905 and this includes internal views of the cottage.

Beatrix Potter also sketched ‘the entrance to the sloping path leading to Lakefield Cottages’.

“Quite close to Lakefield was a group of three cottages approached by a sloping path leading off at right angles from the road. They were known as Lakefield Cottages and were well below the level of the road, sharing a small enclosure with its mosses and spring, and a pump in one corner which provided water for the cottages. James Rogerson the gardener and caretaker at Lakefield, lived in one of these cottages.”

Source A history of the Writings of Beatrix Potter by Leslie Linder

The last occupant’s grandparent’s dog was used as the character Duchess within the book, The Pie and the Patty Pan.