Pottering about

10:26am Saturday 17th November 2007

Comments (0)   Have your say »

I NEVER really succumbed to the Potter magic. Oh, I could see the appeal for children, but I have to say I thought the film version was overrated and underwhelming.

But then I went to the Lake District for a couple of days and it all started falling into place. I'm talking about Beatrix here, you understand, not the boy wizard.

The heart-stopping scenery aside, we simply had to step outside our hotel on the shore of Lake Windermere to be met by the cast of Miss Potter's famous books - Jeremy Fisher, Jemima Puddleduck, Peter, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail, all busy pottering about against this breathtaking natural setting and I found myself coming over all whimsical.

I hadn't expected to be so easily charmed. Having last visited the Lakes as a child, my memories are more Five Dry Off In A Caravan than anything else, and the region has become inextricably linked in my mind with the rustle of cagouls and the swish of wet Wrangler bell-bottoms (it was the 1970s).

But friends have waxed lyrical about family holidays there and we decided it was time to try again.

We chose the wettest summer since The Flood to visit an area renowned for its precipitation, and guess what? The Potter magic worked and the sun shone for the duration.

We stayed at Storrs Hall, just outside Bowness, and although it has self-catering family lodges on site, we went for the grown-up option of staying in the hotel itself, where children under 12 are persona non grata. What a shame Storrs Hall is part of the award-winning, family-run English Lakes Hotels group and is a Georgian mansion in a perfect spot with 17 acres of grounds and woodland skirting the lake.

Built in the 1790s by Sir John Legard, a Yorkshire landowner, it was later extended by a Liverpool merchant, John Bolton, as a holiday home. Of course the slaves on whose backs Bolton grew rich never had a holiday, let alone their own home. But it didn't spoil the enjoyment of all who visited Storrs in its heyday as the social centre of the area, counting poet William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter among its guests.

It became a hotel in 1890 but still has the air of a grand private home used to welcoming guests for glittering house parties, with a comfortable, lived-in hunting lodge feel rather than hotel-chain chic.

Our room was large, with one of those enormous hotel beds. The view from the bay window was of the lake with the mountains as a perfect backdrop.

Dinner in the dining room allowed us to drink in more of the view. The service was formal and unobtrusive but the food was contemporary, in contrast with the setting, and all the more delicious for it. The chef used local produce imaginatively, with delicious results. All the dishes were exquisitely presented in the trendy "assembled" style, but I thoroughly enjoy all that tweaking.

An evening stroll down to the jetty was the perfect end to the evening.

Amazingly, considering all that food, we tucked into a full English with gusto at breakfast time, with a busy day ahead.

One of Storrs' three sister hotels, Low Wood, has a marina, watersports and pool complex which guests can use, so we had a swim before jumping on a Windermere lake cruise boat for the short trip to the other shore and a minibus to Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's former home and now in the care of the National Trust. No roped off areas here, though, and visitors can wander at will through the rooms, which are exactly as they were when their famous owner was in residence.

Books are open at specific pages in the rooms showing interiors exactly reproduced in miniature watercolour, including the dolls' house invaded by two bad mice.

We walked back down to the boat across the fields, feeling quite in tune with Miss Potter.

A cruise round the lake gave us tantalising glimpses of mansions and estates hidden from the road, and we marvelled at how unspoilt and undeveloped the lake was.

For our evening meal that day we visited a third English lakes hotel at Ambleside - the Waterhead, which is a modern boutique hotel. Where the Storrs restaurant is calm, measured and leisurely, The Waterhead's is modern, buzzing and surprisingly fast-moving: I was still chewing the last mouthful of my fishcake starter when the plate was scooped up.

The food was delicious, though, more café-chic than country house, and it was fully-booked with a young clientele. A short drive along the lakeside and we were back at Storrs, in time for a moonlight stroll and bed.

Our final morning dawned fine and sunny and, after a relaxed Sunday breakfast, we headed five minutes along the road to Blackwell, the most perfect example of an art and crafts movement home I have ever seen - and believe me, as a fan I've seen several. Perched high above the lake, this home was another Victorian weekend bolt-hole and it has been lovingly restored to its former original glory, with all the carved wood panelling, window seats, plasterwork ceilings you could wish for.

Sorry to leave Blackwell and the Lake District scenery, we prolongued the sense of relaxation by taking the scenic route home through the Yorkshire Dales.

It's hard to believe that all these years I have lived a mere two-hour drive - and a drive through rolling green countryside at that - away from an area of such beauty and space and yet have missed out on so much. It's time to make up for lost time.

l Storrs Hall, Lake Windermere, 015394 47111, www.elh.co.uk Prices are from £44 up to £152 per person.