When I was a child, I lived across the road from The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop in a building called Church Stile.
When I first read Hansel and Gretel, I remember shrieking out loud because I had MY very own ‘gingerbread house’ just a few yards away and there wasn’t a witch in sight. I was not only the luckiest little girl in the Lake District but the luckiest girl in the whole wide world…
Church Stile sits opposite The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop and was my home from the age of 3 till 10
I am sure that my home with a view triggered my love of finding and/or fantasising about nooks and crannies and other confined spaces where I could crawl inside and peep out at a menacing world. However, my first outdoor hidey-hole was actually a large bamboo bush that was so big you simply parted its giant stems, crawled inside and lay down unnoticed.
Entering into the bamboo bush was my own adventure into a ‘Narnia’
As I got older, I adventured throughout Grasmere and the surrounding fellsides as the entire locale was one giant playground where children of the village always felt safe. My friends and I would collect branches, sticks and bracken from the forest floor and build dens in clearings or besides tumbling Lakeland streams. Then we would line the dens with clumps of spongey moss peeled off ancient drystone walls. These were OUR secret ‘gingerbread houses’ and enter at your peril!
The Lake District is the perfect outdoor playground
Later, all my birthdays came at once when my parents presented me with an amazing Wendy House. I loved it. With my brothers banned from going anywhere near it, my imagination ran riot. I imagined myself in miniature and rearranged the tiny furniture and held tea parties for a selection of my favourite dolls wearing knitted clothes made by my Nan or bought from a local jumble sale.
Wendy houses evolved from the character Wendy in Peter Pan
Like many children, I lived in a make believe world and loved reading fairy tales at night. My Nan kept a children’s library at her flat so when I stayed over we drank mugs of comforting hot chocolate and read lots of stories together. If I close my eyes I can still vividly remember all the lovely book covers and, inside, wonderful colour plates of princes, princesses and fairytale castles.
One vivid memory is my Nan sitting by my bed reading the Grimm Brothers story of Hansel and Gretel – a robust hardback book with a fabulous duck egg blue cover. She brought the terrifying tale to life with descriptive voices and performative actions. With my blankets tucked up to my neck (as it was a cold flat with only a convector heater for warmth) I readily entered a magical, fairytale world. At the end, after Hansel and Gretel return safely to their father, my wonderful Nan would squeeze me tight, give me a big kiss and switch off the light.
She was the most loveable Nan any child could wish for and I am smiling broadly as I write this journal.
Of course, after she left my bedroom, I could NOT get to sleep. My young mind would obsess about Hansel and Gretel’s ‘gingerbread house’ decorated with sweets and smelling of spicy-sweet ginger. Of course, I had The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop and the Grasmere landscape to evoke the Grimm Brothers’ magical universe even if the name Grimm seemed oddly out of place in such a wonderful world. Looking back, sometimes I was so enraptured I wonder whether I was living a dream or actually dreaming.
But here’s the thing; some real things stick with you from childhood. When, as a grown-up, I decided to donate proceeds from sales of Grasmere Gingerbread® Crumbs to Nurture Lakeland in a ‘Leave No Crumbs’ campaign to help fix upland paths whilst simultaneously reminding people not to drop litter in the Lake District, I was inspired by the trail of crumbs that Hansel and Gretel left in the woods to find their way back home.
Sales from of our campaign 'Leave no crumbs' helps lead the way for walkers in the Lake District
This neatly leads me to The Gingerbread House Festival and a realisation of another childhood dream. Coming hot on the heels of re-enacting Victorian travel to Grasmere by four-in-hand carriage to launch English Tourism Week in March (see my previous Joanne’s Journal), The Gingerbread House Festival will be the first-ever national celebration and bold reimagining of a centuries old culinary and cultural tradition.
The inaugural event will be held at the fabulous Low Wood Bay Resort & Spa that overlooks the shores of magnificent Lake Windermere over the weekend Friday 20th November to Sunday 22nd November.
Budding amateur bakers, professional chefs, and crafty confectioners of all ages are invited to reimagine the classic ‘gingerbread house’ with their own DIY ‘gingerbread house’ designs at this exciting pre-Christmas event. Whether an exhibitor or onlooker, it is absolutely worth a visit. With big prizes – including £1000 for the best school entry – and a celebrity judge, this free-to-attend early winter gathering is an opportunity to either create something truly memorable or marvel at the creative flair of others.
From traditional country cottages, elegant stately homes and global cultural landmarks to famous pieces of brutalist architecture, iconic modes of transport or even ‘emergency’ accommodation, The Gingerbread House Festival will shed a spotlight on all kinds of ‘gingerbread house’ designs.
Although the dark evenings of late November seem a long way away, I would urge that you put on your creative thinking caps right now as I am so looking forward to meeting you and gazing at your wonderful ‘gingerbread house’ designs at The Gingerbread House Festival in beautiful Cumbria. I know they will take me back in time to my childhood where fairytales and ‘gingerbread houses’ made life truly wonderful.
To find out more or enter please visit www.thegingerbreadhousefestival.com.
