When Miss Potter became Mrs Heelis
On 15th October 1913, Miss Helen Beatrix Potter married Mr William Heelis. Becoming a married woman in the Victorian era enabled Beatrix to finally "leave home" at the age of 47 and so Mrs Heelis who had recently become a countrywoman, sheep farmer and clog wearer began her own new chapter.
Beatrix lived from her birth in 1866 in a grand town house in the newly built Bolton Gardens, in Kensington, London. Her parents were very wealthy and the wedding venue was St Mary Abbots Parish Church in Kensington - a church of enormous proportions.
Imagine what it must have been like for her as a bride to walk down the aisle to stand alongside her bridegroom, William Heelis, a ceremony witnessed by just a small number of close family and friends.
Later that same week, the local newspapers in the Lake District marked this momentous occasion announcing the wedding of local man Mr William Heelis to Londoner Miss Helen Beatrix Potter. William was a tall, good looking man, a few years younger than Beatrix, and was described as "one of the best all-round sportsmen in the Lake District" and Beatrix as a "successful exhibitor at local agricultural shows" and mentioning her "charming books for children". He loved dancing. She did not. But their marriage was a strong and happy one which lasted until Beatrix passed away at the age of 77 in 1943 in Castle Cottage, their home opposite Hill Top in Near Sawrey.
Did you know, if you visit Hill Top you can see where William etched their initials and the year 1934 to mark their 21st wedding anniversary, quite literally by carving into the mantelpiece!
“Miss Potter”, the film released exactly 20 years ago, in 2006, entertains and informs us (albeit with a little artistic licence and a few inaccuracies) about her life leading up to the death of her first fiance Norman Warne and the purchase of her first farmhouse, Hill Top in 1905. A dedicated conservationist and nature lover, Beatrix bequeathed Hill Top and its contents, her personal belongings, to the National Trust offering an authentic insight into the countrywoman she became.
Beatrix superfans this is for you! I have developed a new in-depth 2 hour specialist guided walking tour of Hawkshead in the Lake District on which I reveal Beatrix Potter’s numerous connections in what would have been her nearest market town.
On the guided walk, pulling from oral history, newspaper archives, reading short extracts from biographies, letters and her stories, the focus is on Mrs Heelis to see the places with which she had strong connections, not least the locations of the sketches in her stories. As we wander along the crooked and cobbled streets through many archways and little old squares of this picture postcard Lakeland village I reveal the magical, mischievous and sometimes mundane!
Beatrix Potter had arrived in the Lake District as a teenager, a tourist from London, who in her journal writes about getting lost while walking to Hawkshead, encountering many stiles and being chased by cows. Her heart stayed in the Lake District, visiting frequently and it’s where, many years later, she met her future husband William, a local solicitor in Hawkshead. His offices are also cared for by the National Trust and is now home to a secondhand bookshop, called Tabitha Twitchit's for reasons which will become obvious on a guided walk all about Beatrix Potter (Mrs Heelis).
The inaugural walk was launched with thanks to the collaboration and marketing skills of the Armitt Museum in Ambleside (https://www.armitt.com/) which is where the largest collection in the world is held of fungi drawings by Beatrix Potter. This popular and over-subscribed walk was also supported by the oldest pub in Hawkshead, the Red Lion, https://redlioninnhawkshead.co.uk/ where participants enjoyed discounted post-walk refreshments.
Throughout 2026, the year of Beatrix Potter's 160th birthday, the Armitt Museum is hosting a special co-curated exhibition entitled "The A to Z of Beatrix Potter" with its accompanying book of the same title by Dr Penny Bradshaw of the University of Cumbria.
Hawkshead is quite rightly associated with the Lakes poet William Wordsworth who attended Hawkshead Grammar School (now a museum) as a boy and took lodgings in Hawkshead.
This new guided walk, Beatrix Potter's Connections with Hawkshead takes you on an exploration of this pretty village looking through the lens of Beatrix Potter and you will be surprised at just how much there is to discover about her.
Ideal for groups of up to 12 people, the walk is suitable for people with good mobility as we will encounter steep paths and uneven countryside sections.
Enquiries to be made directly to alison@AmblesideAlison.uk
About the author:
Alison Pickering is a Cumbria Blue Badge Guide specialising in literary tours, having volunteered previously at ‘Wordsworth Grasmere’ the museum associated with Dorothy and William Wordsworth and Dove Cottage, and currently in her spare time volunteers at Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top and is an active member of the Beatrix Potter Society.