Windermere

Windermere on a misty morning

The word 'Windermere' is thought to translate as "'Winand or Vinand's lake'... The specific has usually been identified with an Old Swedish personal name 'Vinandr', genitive singular 'Vinandar'"... although "the personal noun is of very restricted distribution even in Sweden." Another possibility is that it refers to a "Continental Germanic personal noun, 'Wīnand'...Since this name could not have been current until the 12th century, the fact that the Old Norse genitive singular '-ar-' has been added to it, it would suggest that Old Norse was still a living language in the area at that time."[6] Alternative spellings may be 'Wynhendermere' and 'Wynenderme' [7] The second element is Old English 'mere', meaning 'lake' or 'pool'. It was known as "Winander Mere" or "Winandermere" until at least the 19th century.[8][9]

Its name suggests it is a mere, a lake that is broad in relation to its depth, but despite the name this is not the case for Windermere, which in particular has a noticeable thermocline, distinguishing it from typical meres. Until the 19th century, the term "lake" was, indeed, not much used by or known to the native inhabitants of the area, who referred to it as Windermere/Winandermere Water, or (in their dialect) Windermer Watter. The name Windermere or Windermer was used of the parish that had clearly taken its name from the water. The poet Norman Nicholson comments on the use of the phrase 'Lake Windermere': "a certain excuse for the tautology can be made in the case of Windermere, since we need to differentiate between the lake and the town, though it would be better to speak of 'Windermere Lake' and Windermere Town', but no one can excuse such ridiculous clumsiness as 'Lake Derwentwater' and 'Lake Ullswater."[10]

The extensive parish included most of Undermilbeck (that is, excepting Winster and the part of Crook chapelry that lay west of the Gilpin, which were part of Kirkby Kendal parish), Applethwaite, Troutbeck and Ambleside-below-Stock, that is, the part of Ambleside that lay south of Stock Beck. The parish church was at Bowness in Undermilbeck.

A map of the lake from 1925

Windermere is long and narrow, like many other ribbon lakes, and lies in a steep-sided pre-glacial river valley that has become deepened by successive glaciations.[11] The current lake was formed after the Last Glacial Maximum during the retreat of the British and Irish Ice Sheet some time between 17,000 and 14,700 years ago, just before the start of the Windermere Interstadial. The lake water was sourced from the meltwater of retreating ice in the catchment, which receded up the Troutbeck valley and up the valleys that now contain the rivers Rothay and Brathay.[12] There were at least nine ice retreat phases, indicated by buried recessional moraines.[12] The lake has two separate basins – north and south – with different characteristics influenced by the geology. This consists of hard volcanic rocks in the north basin and softer shales in the south.[13]

The lake is drained from its southernmost point by the River Leven.[14] It is replenished by the rivers Brathay, Rothay, Trout Beck, Cunsey Beck and several other lesser streams. The lake is largely surrounded by foothills of the Lake District which provide pleasant low-level walks; to the north and northeast are the higher fells of central Lakeland.[14]

There is debate as to whether the stretch of water between Newby Bridge and Lakeside at the southern end of the lake should be considered part of Windermere, or a navigable stretch of the River Leven. This affects the stated length of the lake, which is 11.23 miles (18.07 km) long if measured from the bridge at Newby Bridge,[14] or 10.5 miles (16.9 km) if measured from Lakeside. The lake varies in width up to a maximum of 1 mile (1.6 km), and covers an area of 14.73 km² (5.69 sq mi).[14] With a maximum depth of 66.7 m (219 ft) and an elevation above sea level of 39 m (128 ft), the lowest point of the lake bed is well below sea level.[14]

There is only one town or village directly on the lakeshore, Bowness-on-Windermere, as the village of Windermere does not directly touch the lake and the centre of Ambleside is one mile (1.6 km) to the north of Waterhead. The village of Windermere is about 20 minutes' walk from Millerground, the nearest point on the lakeshore. It did not exist before the arrival of the railway in 1847. The station was built in an area of open fell and farmland in the township of Applethwaite. The nearest farm was Birthwaite, which gave its name to the station and the village that began to grow up near it. In about 1859, the residents began to call their new village by the name of Windermere, much to the chagrin of the people of Bowness, which had been the centre of the parish of Windermere for many centuries. Since 1907 the two places have been under one council and, although there are still two separate centres, the area between is largely built up, albeit bordering on woodland and open fields. Windermere railway station is a hub for train and bus connections to the surrounding areas and is 1+1⁄4 miles (2 km) from the Waterbus jetty. There is a regular train service to Oxenholme on the West Coast Main Line, where there are fast trains to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester Airport, Birmingham and London.

Islands

Ramp Holme is one of several islands on Windermere

The lake contains eighteen islands.[15] By far the largest is the privately owned Belle Isle (16.18 hectares; 40.0 acres) opposite Bowness and around a kilometre in length. Its older name was Lang Holme, and 800 years ago it was the centre of the manor of Windermere and later, in effect, of a moiety of the barony of Kendal.

The other islands or "holmes" are considerably smaller. The word "holme" or "holm" means small island or islet and comes from Old Norse holmr. The island of Lady Holme is named after the chantry that formerly stood there and in former centuries was sometimes called St Mary Holme or just Mary Holme. The remaining islands are Bee Holme (the insular status of which depends on the water level), Blake Holme, Crow Holme, Birk or Birch Holme (called Fir Holme on Ordnance Survey maps), Grass Holme, Lilies of the Valley (East, and West), Ling Holme (a rocky hump with a few trees and a growth of ling), Hawes Holme, Hen Holme (also rocky and sometimes known as chair and Table Island from some old flags or slabs of stone that were formerly found there), Maiden Holme (the smallest island, with just one tree), Ramp Holme (variously called Roger Holme and Berkshire Island at different times in its history), Rough Holme, Snake Holme, Thompson Holme (the second largest), Silver Holme.[15]

Before 1974, the lake lay wholly within the county of Westmorland; however, the historic county boundary between Lancashire and Westmorland runs down the western shore of the lake and also along about three miles (5 km) of the southern section of the eastern shore. Anyone crossing the lake from east to west on the Windermere Ferry thus travels from the historic county of Westmorland to that of Lancashire.

Local government reorganisation in 1974 placed Windermere and its shores within the district of South Lakeland in the non-metropolitan county of Cumbria. Since April 2023, Cumbria no longer exists for administrative purposes and the lake falls entirely within Westmorland and Furness administrative area. Most planning matters concerned with the lake are, however, the responsibility of the Lake District National Park Authority.

In 2021, it was reported that in 2020 the sewage-treatment plant in Ambleside discharged raw sewage into Windermere for 1,719 hours during that year (equivalent to 71 out of 365 days), and that private and outdated septic tanks from residential dwellings, holiday homes and caravan sites also released sewage into the lake.[35] It was suggested that the lake could become "ecologically dead", with the growth of blue-green algae and numerous dead fish and invertebrates being recorded.[35]

In July 2022, the Love Windermere partnership was created to tackle challenges in the lake. Nutrients, climate change, more extreme weather patterns and the seasonal variations of the tourist population are all predicted to put the lake and its water quality under increasing pressure in the coming years.[36]

In 2023, it was reported that data from the Environment Agency showed that United Utilities released sewage from storm overflows into the lake for 246 days in 2022.[37]

William Wordsworth, one of the Lake Poets, described the view of Windermere from the crest of a hill in The Prelude, Book IV:

Standing alone, as from a rampart’s edge,
I overlooked the bed of Windermere,
Like a vast river, stretching in the sun.
With exultation, at my feet I saw
Lake, islands, promontories, gleaming bays,
A universe of Nature’s fairest forms
Proudly revealed with instantaneous burst,
Magnificent, and beautiful, and gay.[38]

Oscar Wilde began working on his first hit play, Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), during a summer visit to the Lake District in 1891.[39] A series of children's books by Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons and its sequels Swallowdale, Winter Holiday, Pigeon Post and The Picts and the Martyrs, involve school holiday adventures in the 1930s around a fictional lake derived from a combination of Windermere and Coniston Water. The fictional lake resembles Windermere, but the surrounding hills and fells resemble those of Coniston Water. The BBC made a television series Swallows and Amazons in 1962; parts of this were filmed at the boathouse of Huyton Hill Preparatory School (now Pullwood House)[40] on the northwestern shore.

The lake gave its name to a group of 300 Jewish boys, the "Windermere Boys", who survived Auschwitz and settled at Troutbeck Bridge near Windermere in 1945, thanks to the help of Leonard G. Montefiore.[41][42] This refugee rescue was dramatised as The Windermere Children broadcast on the BBC in 2020 for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Legends of female centaurs in Windermere served as the basis for Archie Fisher's 1976 song The Witch of the West-Mer-Lands, which was later covered by Stan Rogers. Fisher cites "tales of antlered women with bodies of deer seen wading in the shallows of the lakes in the moonlight" as the inspiration for his song. "Apparently deer used to swim across the shallow end of Lake Windermere and weeds got caught in their antlers and observers, probably wandering home from a local hostelry, took them to be these mythical creatures."[43]

Windermere is a location used in the 1994 fighting game Tekken. Belle Isle features in The Wardstone Chronicles: The Spooks Mistake (2008). Rather than the large house, though, Belle Isle plays host to a folly which is used by the Water Witches in the area. In November 2009, several scenes were shot on Windermere for the ITV soap opera Coronation Street, featuring the newlyweds Gail and Joe on their honeymoon. Windermere and the surrounding countryside is the setting for mystery novelist Elizabeth George's 2012 book Believing the Lie, the 17th in the Inspector Lynley series.

Some people believe that there may be a lake monster,[44] similar to the one alleged to live in Loch Ness, and in 2011 anomalous photos were taken of the supposed creature;[45][46] it has been affectionately nicknamed "Bownessie".[46]

In 2017, some scenes from the 2018 live action film Peter Rabbit were filmed in Windermere and Ambleside, with the Peter Rabbit heritage being strongly linked to the area.[47] Taylor Swift mentions "Windermere peaks" and Wordsworth in her song, "The Lakes," included as a bonus track on her 2020 album, Folklore.[48]

• Parker, John Wilson (2004). An Atlas of the English Lakes. Cicerone Press. ISBN 978-1-85284-355-7.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Windermere.

• Windermere on Lake District National Park Authority website
• Windermere on Visitcumbria.com
• The Three Lakes Challenge
• Lake Windermere Depth Map