Psychoanalysts argue that children’s dreams act as mental ‘roadmaps’, potentially offering unconscious insights into their grown-up selves’ future pathways through life. So, when a spectacular four-in-hand, horse-drawn carriage arrived outside The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop the other day – carrying no less than ‘Queen Victoria’ and a host of famous 19th century Cumbrians including ‘William Wordsworth’, ‘Beatrix’ Potter’ and ‘John Ruskin’ – I smiled for this was one childhood dream that I consciously made come true.
Four-in-hand, horse-drawn carriages arrive in Grasmere outside the former Rothay Hotel next to Saran Nelson’s Church Cottage – now The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop.
To celebrate English Tourism Week – an annual opportunity to celebrate travel, exploration and hospitality in the country – I decided to organise a re-enactment of the original 19th century journey wealthy Victorians made from Oxenholme Rail Station to Windermere Rail Station and then onto Grasmere by four-in-hand, horse-drawn carriage. After the branch line opened for steam trains in 1847, travelling to Grasmere – the locale where Wordsworth lived for many years and which he described as ‘the loveliest spot that man hath ever found’ – suddenly became that much easier. Even after the great Romantic poet died in 1850, well-heeled visitors continued to make their way to fashionable Grasmere to pay their respects at his simple grave in St Oswald’s Churchyard, a few yards from the Church Cottage home of Sarah Nelson – now The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop.
The Wordsworth family graves in St Oswald’s Churchyard, Grasmere
As a young girl living opposite in Church Stile, I often daydreamed about Sarah Nelson’s daily life in the 19th century. With only a few hundred neighbours in the valley – a pastoral delight in spring, summer and autumn but an icy outpost in winter – how did she feel when thundering convoys of four-in-hand, horse-drawn carriages clattered into the village to shake the walls of her humble single storey home? Did the magnificent sight excite her? Or did she shrewdly view the wealthy, well-dressed Victorian passengers as a business opportunity to sell even more slices of her unique spicy-sweet cross between a biscuit and cake? Pardon my baking pun, but I suspect it was a mixture of the two.
Sarah Nelson outside her Church Cottage home in the 19th century – now The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop
In realising my childhood dream, there were lots of nail-biting moments in the run-up to the re-enactment. Typically, I was forced to postpone the date of the original event on March 12th due to a grim Lake District storm that roared across the landscape. So, when a grey dawn broke four mornings later – our only other calendar option – I had everything crossed that the weather would be kind (and if not that my troupe of enthusiastic actors would take everything in their stride). Thankfully, despite a brisk wind and bursts of rain, my Victorian celebrities safely boarded the 10.21 Oxenholme to Windermere to let the train take the strain.
Our Victorian party arrive at Oxenholme Rail Station for their first official photograph
When our famous Victorians disembarked at Windermere 20 minutes later to board their horse-drawn carriage, commuters and holidaymakers alike took pictures and mock-curtseyed to ‘Queen Victoria’. Ably played by Rachel Bell, Vice Chair of Cumbria Tourism, when addressed as ‘Maaaaam’ by laughing spectators she regally insisted on the sharper-sounding version that rhymes with jam. Rachel – you were born to play the role.
But then all my actors, from significant tourist attractions in the Lake District, were an absolute delight. Playing William Wordsworth, Neil Salisbury from Hawkshead Grammar School Museum – which educated the poet when a young boy – eagerly waved his top hat to onlookers from the top of our splendid four-in-hand carriage. Similarly, Brantwood Maintenance Officer Emil Molineaux looked amazing as John Ruskin and grew his facial whiskers to more closely resemble the great polymath. Even though our ‘Beatrix Potter’ – Jo Baxter – is an actor in real life at the World of Beatrix Potter Attraction in Bowness-on-Windermere, her resemblance to the children’s author was uncanny.
Much praise to Caz Graham, Deputy Lieutenant of Cumbria, who, as Dorothy Wordsworth, braved the open-air top seat of the carriage despite her costume being the flimsiest. Having prayed for sunshine and swift horses, she at least got the latter although I suspect she might have been secretly wearing thermals. Our sixth actor, Miguel Bernalte, General Manager of the Windermere Hotel, was a sartorial delight as Arthur Ransome, author of Swallows and Amazons. But then working collegiately with fellow tourist attractions in the Lake District – which collectively contribute to our rural economy – is something I enjoy as Co-Director of Grasmere Gingerbread®. Everyone brings something to the tourism party in this wonderful corner of England.
Our Victorians wave to open-air spa guests at the Low Hood Hotel on Lake Windermere
Needless to say, when our carriage sailed passed the Low Wood Hotel overlooking Windermere, amazing guests in their award-winning open-air spa, I felt a surge of pride that we could pull off such an amazing feat. The rest of the day, as they say, is history.
After we rolled out the red carpet for our party outside The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop – to be greeted by Grasmere Gingerbread® inventor Sarah Nelson played by Customer Service Assistant Tara Crosby – history had come full circle.
‘Queen Victoria’, ‘William Wordsworth’, ‘John Ruskin’, ‘Beatrix Potter’, ‘Dorothy Wordsworth’ and ‘Arthur Ransome’ arrive outside The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop.
It not only took me back to my own childhood dream of Victorian life in the village but to the 2016 visit to The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop of Prince Charles – great-great-great grandson of the real Queen Victoria.
A tight squeeze for our royal party behind our famous shop counter
Our royal party’s final stop, the grave of William Wordsworth in St Oswald’s Churchyard under darkening skies, proved a sombre affair as art imitated life.
Our ‘Victorians’ visiting the graves of William and Dorothy Wordsworth
Later, after waving off our actors, I confess to shedding a tear after realising an outstanding goal from my personal bucket list. Sarah Nelson continues to be my personal and professional inspiration and if she was looking down on Grasmere a few days ago, I hope she smiled at my tribute to her, a real woman of substance and – in my humble opinion – Cumbria’s greatest Victorian culinary icon.
