3 Day - Needlework & Embroidery Tour of the Lake District & Lancashire

This tour is designed so that a pre/post tour Edinburgh extension can be added to the tour. Alternatively the tours can be combined to make a longer tour.

Click on the below link to download a copy of the itinerary;

Day One - The Quaker Tapestry - Hilltop - Lake District
Enjoy a morning visit to The Quaker Tapestry, a celebration of Quaker insight and experience across the centuries, which is brought to life through inspiring and beautiful modern embroidery. You will find no less than 77 different tapestries on display here. On then for an afternoon visit to Hilltop, a delightful small 17th-century farmhouse where Beatrix Potter wrote many of her famous children's stories and it has been kept exactly as she left it. Recently re-created for the major film Miss Potter, the traditional cottage garden is planted with flowers, herbs and vegetables. The house, gardens and village were used as models for illustrations in many of her books. Check-in at your hotel in the Lake District for the next 2 nights.

Day Two - Dove Cottage - Ruskin Museum - Lake District
After breakfast enjoy a morning visit to Dove Cottage, the home of William Wordsworth from December 1799 to May 1808, the years of his supreme work as a poet. This will be followed by a special Lace Demonstration at the Ruskin Museum in Coniston.  The history of Ruskin Lace began in 1883, as a result of an idea revealed by John Ruskin and put into practice by Albert Fleming, a friend of John Ruskin and a fellow trustee to the Guild of St. George, a trust founded to assist craft workers establish their business, in this instance to set up a Cottage Industry of spinning and weaving of linen, as there had been a previous history of this occupation in the locality. The first length of Linen came off the loom, Easter 1884 and though this fabric was of interesting texture, the spinners quickly become more skilled. The result was to produce articles from the linen with a variety of embroidery applied one type being what is now called Ruskin Lace.  There will be an opportunity to also visit the museum before returning to your hotel.

Day Three - Lake District - Gawthorpe Hall
Morning at leisure to enjoy the Lake District before an afternoon visit to the imposing Gawthorpe Hall, with its international collection of needlework and lace and it is set in tranquil grounds. Continue to your hotel for overnight.