Grasmere: The Impact of Tourism Introduction
For Thomas Gray, visiting in 1769, Grasmere was “this little unsuspected paradise” where “all is peace, rusticity, and happy poverty, in its neatest most becoming attire”. For West, the view down to Grasmere was “as sweet a scene as travelled eye ever beheld”. There was no doubt that, for guidebook writers and tourists, Grasmere was one of the beauties in the Lake District’s crown.
In many ways, Grasmere remained the same throughout this period. It continued to be a farming community, with the census for 1851 showing that there were 16 farmers in Grasmere and that agricultural labourers made up the largest group of workers. For farmers the changes and challenges they faced were largely distinct from tourism.
Many of the longstanding traditions and customs also continued; for example, the celebrations held at the end of sheep shearing continued to be popular, and locals and visitors alike rejoiced in the annual Grasmere rushbearing.
In other ways however tourism did impact on people’s lives. Economically it provided alternative job opportunities: you could work in a hotel, as a guide or boat person. Those who worked in the building trade or as domestic servants benefited too when people, originally arriving as visitors, settled in the area or built holiday homes.
Aesthetically, the landscape certainly changed, with more and more large houses being built. Then, as now, such projects raise local comment.
With the arrival of the railway to Windermere in 1847 came the changes that really transformed tourism in the South Lakes.
John White Abbott , Hill Cragg on Grasmere
Lake, 12 July 1791, pen and grey ink and watercolour, The Wordsworth
Trust.