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Near Sawrey and Far Sawrey are two neighbouring villages in The English Lake District between the town of Hawkshead and the lake of Windermere. They lie on the B5285, which runs from Hawkshead to the Windermere Ferry one mile to the east of the villages.

Snuggled in the rolling farmland and wooded hillsides by Windermere, the attractive conservation village of Near Sawrey is situated two miles from Hawkshead down the eastern side of Esthwaite Water, overlooked by the woods and tarns of Claife Heights.

The village is indelibly associated with writer Beatrix Potter, who first visited in 1896 when her parents rented a village house (Ees Wyke). She described Near Sawrey “as near perfect a little place as I ever lived in” Link . The author later purchased SD3795 : Hill Top, a 17th century farmhouse, in 1905 with the royalties from her first book, “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”. A number of sites in the villages were used in her books such as The Tale of Tom Kitten, The Fairy Caravan, The Pie and the Patty Pan and The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck.

The villages date from at least the 14th century, when Near Sawrey was known as 'Sourer', becoming 'Narr Sawrey' by the 17th century (suggesting that Far Sawrey must have been in existence by this time).

Link The Cumbria Directory
Link Wikipedia article