The children’s author and illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) spent many childhood holidays in the Lake District. She later bought a holiday home, Hill Top, near Hawkshead and moved to the area permanently after marrying local solicitor, William Heelis, in 1913. 

She used this boat on Moss Eccles Tarn, a small mountain lake she purchased in 1903. Beatrix planted the tarn with water lilies, much like those seen in her earlier infamous illustrations of Mr Jeremy Fisher. Beatrix’s husband, William, was a keen fisherman and the tarn was kept well stocked with fish.  

The boat’s flat bottom means it could be used safely in the shallow tarn, and there are some stories that it is an example of ingenious recycling- the wood used to construct the boat closely resembles reused floorboards. 

Beatrix’s farm manager remembered the boat sinking in 1950 and it was later dredged from the lake in 1976.