The Lake District is by far the UK’s most popular national park. Every year some 15 million people come here to explore the region’s fells and countryside and it’s not hard to see why. Ever since the Romantic poets arrived in the nineteenth century, its panorama of craggy hilltops, mountain tarns and glittering lakes have been stirring the imaginations of visitors. Among the many writers who found inspiration here are William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Arthur Ransome and, of course, Beatrix Potter – a lifelong lover of the Lakes.

Lake Windermere is the largest of the lakes and this fascinating collection of old and new pictures shows how much has changed around the lake’s shores. It also features nearby Coniston Water and Grasmere as well as the main tourist centres of Ambleside, Bowness-on-Windermere, Coniston and Windermere village.