Covering an area of 912 square miles (2,362 square kilometers), the Lake District is England’s largest and most popular national park, with more than 19 million visitors each year.
Although it has been well loved for generations.
In 1820, the famous poet William Wordsworth published “A Guide to the Lakes” and once described his house in Grasmere as “the loveliest place that man ever found.”
The region initially attracted wealthy tourists, and the emergence of the railway (and the station by Lake Windermere) helped to make it more accessible to people from a wider range of backgrounds.
Then the M6, in the late 1950s and 1960s, accelerated the park towards mass tourism hotspot status.
These photographs transport you to a simpler and less crowded time… tell us in the comments which place you like the most.
This image shows hikers at Skelwith Falls, near Ambleside, around 1930. The Lake District National Park says: ‘From the late 18th century, land was no longer seen as just a means of earning a living through agriculture or industry. People began to recognize her beauty.
Women are shown here in 1933 taking a dip in the Grange open air swimming pool near Arnside, a village just at the southern end of the Lake District. The pool was built in 1932, but closed in 1993.
Tourists are photographed on one of the water slides at Grange Swimming Pool in 1933. The Save Grange Lido campaign explains that the ‘Lido (has) remained closed and progressively declining’ since its closure despite calls to restore it
LakeLovers.com He says the extension of the railway and the opening of Windermere station in the 1840s gave “many more people the opportunity to visit the region”. Above: People at Tilberthwaite, north of Coniston Water, in 1933.
Three women on holiday in the Lake District in 1934. By this time, the “picturesque qualities” of the Lake District had “inspired literature and art” for decades. Notable admirers from the region included William Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter and John Ruskin.
In this image, men are photographed shearing long-wooled sheep on a remote farm in Bannisdale in 1939. Sheep farming is still important in the region today. Visit Cumbria notes: ‘Cumbria without sheep wouldn’t be Cumbria’
Three hikers are photographed resting and dipping their feet in Blea Tarn Lake in 1940. It remains a popular scenic spot today and Visit Cumbria describes it as one of the “easiest” places to visit in the Lake District.
A group of youth hostel guests are captured walking through the Lake District in 1941. The Youth Hostel Association It says that the hostels “offered young workers an unprecedented opportunity to spend free time outdoors and in the open countryside, on a scale previously only possible for the wealthy.”
This photograph, dating from 1948, shows farmers gathering hay in Langdale. The original title read: “On a clear autumn day, in an environment world famous for its beauty, they take away the last of the hay production.”
Fishermen were photographed “bringing in a new batch of perch” from Windermere, England’s largest lake, in 1948. Perch were considered a pest and were removed from the lake to increase trout and char numbers.
This image captures Bridge House, “possibly the most photographed building in the Lake District”, in 1950. Visit Cumbria He explains that the house, in Ambleside, was a “popular subject for many artists, including Turner.” The house, once an apple store, was built over the bridge to avoid the land tax. It currently belongs to the National Trust.
The Lake District National Park was formed in 1951 and became the UK’s second national park after the Peak District. These cyclists are photographed consulting their map next to Grasmere in 1953.
A group of hikers pose on steps near the village of Rydal in 1957. The establishment of the area as a national park “sought to preserve its special qualities and limit threats to the landscape,” he explains. districtlake.gov.uk
Derwentwater, also known as the ‘Queen of the Lakes’, in the winter of 1959. This lake is home to four islands and one of the most beautiful views in the area, from a rocky headland called Friar’s Crag.
Tourists in 1960 looking at Tarn Hows, a beautiful man-made site that is “now a favorite spot for walkers of all ages and abilities”, according to Visit the Lake District
A shop in the village of Rosthwaite in the 1960s. The Lake District National Park The website explains: “Improvements in roads, widespread car ownership and rising standards of living led to increasing numbers of visitors beginning in the 1960s.”