Esthwaite Water is a privately-owned, picturesque lake, nestled between Windermere and Coniston Water in relatively lowland areas, set against a backdrop of beautiful, rolling hills, with coniferous and deciduous woodlands to the east, south and west. The 11th largest lake from our list has a surface area of 100 hectares (247 acres), 7 kilometres (4.35 miles) of shoreline, and has a maximum depth of 15.5 metres (50 feet). Historically, it used to be in Lancashire until 1974 when a major Government reform of the counties took place under the Local Government Act 1972. Lancashire lost all of its possession in the Lake District, and the ceremonial county of Cumbria became the new governing county.
Esthwaite Water Trout Fishery operates varied fishing experiences on the lake, offering boat and bank fishing, tuitions, self-drive boat cruises and osprey safaris.[1] Farmland occupies much of the lakeside, except where the ground is taken over to wetland in relatively large pockets at Dubs Tarn to the south, and Priests Pot to the north.[2] With this in mind, access to lake is very limited to the public. A circular route around the lake is possible by road only, with a small off-road section from Hawkshead to the lake’s northern fringe.
Beatrix Potter
Esthwaite Water was London-born Helen Beatrix Potter’s favourite lake, which was handy given the proximity of her 17th-century writing retreat of Hilltop, a modest, picture-perfect farmhouse set within the beautiful village of Near Sawrey. Walking around the area, it’s easy to see how this was “the place that inspired her stories and her love for the Lake District.”[3] It is the quintessential rural Lake District, full of charm and character.
Nearby Moss Eccles Tarn was owned by Potter, and a short walk here can be taken along Stones Lane from the centre of the village. It is a tranquil place. The tarn is home to water lilies, brown trout, and the shores to the west and south are lined with coniferous and deciduous trees. Yet this tarn is relatively new. The tarns on Claife Heights are not of glacial origin, evidence of which comes from old Ordnance Survey maps where there is a distinct absence of water bodies. But this does not detract from the beauty of the place. Tarn Hows was once three smaller tarns, High Tarn, Middle Tarn, and Low Tarn, but a small dam at the south-west corner had created a larger tarn, the one we see today. This is one of the most visited tarns in Lakeland, so it proves that they do not need to be “natural” to be popular and enjoyed by millions of people.
Beatrix Potter owned a substantial amount of land, not just around Near Sawrey, but also at Hawkshead, Coniston, little Langdale and many others. Her beloved Hilltop, and 1638 hectares (4049 acres) of land were acquired by the National Trust under the will of Mrs W. Heelis (Beatrix Potter) on 1 June, 1944.[4]
Etymology
There have been various spellings of Esthwaite since the 16th century, for example: Estwyth (1539), Eastthwaite (1625), the mere of Hawkshead Estwater (1537), Estthwaite Water (1565), Eastwait-water (1671), and the Ordnance Survey map from 1851 shows the present day version Esthwaite Water. The name also appears in Esthwaite Hall and Esthwaite Lodge.[5] The simplest meaning of Esthwaite Water would be the lake by the eastern clearing, with the first and second elements coming from Old Norse, and the third from Old English.[6] In an attempt to keep this fairly simple, especially with other connections to Brittonic, there are two (main) possible definitions of the first two elements.
- the eastern clearing – comes from Middle English est (east), that probably replaced Old Norse austr (east), and Old Norse þveit (clearing), which in modern day English is thwaite (clearing; forest land cleared for agriculture or habitation). Thwaite is a fairly common word and appears in many places across the Lake District
- the clearing where ash trees grow – comes from Old Norse eski/askr (ash trees) and þveit (clearing).[5]
The third element water comes from Old English wæter
Geography
It lies in a fairly open valley that was carved by a separate tongue of ice from the Langdale fells. The ice continued to excavate in a southerly direction before joining with the Windermere flow, south of Claife Heights.[2] This openness gives a feeling of space from some of the various vantage points that offer fine views across the landscape in almost every direction. The lake has three peninsulas, Strickland Ees, on the West Bank, and Ees Wyke and Elter Holme on the south-east bank. The lake drains via Cunsey Beck, through Out Dubs Tarn and on to Windermere. Esthwaite’s catchment area is 17.1 square kilometres (6.6 square miles) and forms part of the larger catchment of Windermere, which is a hefty 230.5 square kilometres (89 square miles), the second largest of all Lakeland’s catchments, behind that of Bassenthwaite Lake’s catchment.[7]
The principle villages are Hawkshead to the north of the Lake, and Near Sawrey to the south-east, with Grizedale Forest occupying huge swathes of the Furness Fells. Priests Pot is a small area of open water surrounded by this wetland. It is slowly transforming via a process called plant succession, where colonisation and infilling changes something from one state to another, in this case the water will eventually dry up and give way to woodland. This infilling process has occurred all over the Lake District, some more drastically than others. Hawkshead itself was developed on top of alluvium, the deposits of clay, silt, sand, and gravels that slowly infilled the northern extremes of the valley floor. Buttermere and Crummock Water was once a single, much larger lake, now separated by alluvial infilling. The same can be said for Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite Lake. Eventually, over extremely long periods of time, the landscape can change to the point it becomes unrecognisable.
Esthwaite Water is nutrient rich and biologically productive.[8] Scientifically, a great deal is known about the lake and it’s environs. In 1987 the lake including Priests Pot and Out Dubs Tarn was given Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) status, which is protected under a conservation designation. It covers an area of 152.8 hectares (377.6 acres).
References
- ↑ Services - Esthwaite Water. Accessed 5 July, 2023.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Smith, Alan (2012). The Big Lakes of Lakeland. The Landscapes of Cumbria No.5. Keswick: Rigg Side Publications. p.66.
- ↑ Hilltop - National Trust. Accessed 5 July, 2023.
- ↑ Heelis Bequest - Our Land History The National Trust. Accessed 5 July, 2023.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Whaley, Diana (2006). A Dictionary of Lake District Place-Names. English Place-Name Society. School of English Studies, University of Nottingham. p.111-112.
- ↑ Gambles, Robert (1985). Lake District Place-Names. 2nd Edition. Dalesman Books. p.17.
- ↑ Smith (2012), p.50
- ↑ Smith (2012), p.67