Hill Top Farm

Hill Top is a 17th-century farmhouse in the village of Near Sawrey, Cumbria. It sits among the rolling hills of the Lake District, its stone walls and slate roof blending with the landscape. Beatrix Potter bought the house in 1905 as her country retreat and left it to the National Trust after her death in 1943. The farm once covered 34 acres and was managed by John Cannon, who lived in a wing built for his family in 1906. Potter’s stories, including *The Tale of Peter Rabbit* and *The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck*, were inspired by the house and its surroundings. The garden is kept as it would have been in her time, matching the illustrations in her books. The house remains as Potter arranged it, with rooms filled with her belongings. The entrance hall has a stone-flagged floor and a longcase clock from the late 18th century. The parlour displays an Adam-style chimneypiece and a coronation teapot used in *The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan*. Upstairs, the bedroom holds a four-poster bed from the mid-1600s, and the smallest room, the treasure room, features a dolls’ house and miniature bronzes of her characters. The new room, added as a library, holds paintings by her brother Walter Bertram and looks out over the village. Visitors walk through the same spaces Potter knew, from the scullery to the sitting room. The staircase and landing display clocks, carpets and artworks that appear in her books. The garden includes a vegetable plot, though the famous vegetables from *Peter Rabbit* were painted elsewhere. A replica of Hill Top was built in Japan, and original watercolours are now shown in a display at the house. The nearby villages and farms also feature in her stories, linking the place to her work.