| History |
| Only brief details are available on this page. The Ruskin Museum offers more comprehensive details. Other useful links are also to be found here. Please also check out the publications section. | |||
| Copper Mining | |
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| Slate Quarrying | |||
| John Ruskin | |||
| Donald Campbell | |||
| Steam Yacht Gondola | |||
| Beatrix Potter | |||
| Swallows and Amazons | |||
| Furness Railway | |||
| Farming | |||
| Coniston 14 Road Race | |||
| Publications | |||
| The mining of Copper has been evident in the area for many centuries. It reached its peak, however, in the 19th Century. This is the main reason for the expansion of population in the village. Without the mines existence there would have been no Railway, Steam Yacht Gondola or many of the buildings in the village centre. | |||
 | It is highly dangerous to explore these workings. The Ruskin Museum organise special guided walks. | ||
| A recent Geochemical study by Ollie Lancaster (Aberystwyth University 2003)
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| Info to be uploaded soon |
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| John Ruskin, 8 February 1819
- 20 January 1900. He was one of the greatest figures of the Victorian age, poet, artist, critic, social revolutionary and conservationist. John Ruskin bought Brantwood in 1871.
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| Brantwood is
open to the public. John Ruskin is buried in the St Andrews Church graveyard. The Ruskin Museum was established in 1901. In 1999 the museum has been completely modernised and extended with the help of a Heritage Lottery Grant. Another fine resource on John Ruskin has been compiled by Mike Salts. Click here for more details |  |
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| Coniston Water will always be remembered as the place where Donald Campbell made his water speed record attempts which ultimately claimed his life. With the water speed record already in his hands at over 280mph (Coniston 1966), on 4th January 1967 he attempted to raise the record to 300mph. He was well on course for this when disaster struck. | |||
 | Donald Campbell was finally
laid to rest in St Andrews Church, Cemetary, Coniston (behind Lakeland
House) on 12 September 2001. It is expected that the restored remains of "Bluebird" will be displayed at the Ruskin Museum. |
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| For more information on Donald Campbell's history please see the Ruskin Museum site or the "Across The Lake" site below: | |||
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| A
Chapter from the recently published book "The Story of Coniston" (Copyright reserved) by Alastair Cameron and Elizabeth (Ibby) Brown
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The Gondola was built by the "Furness Railway Company" in 1859. After a brief period as a house-boat, the Gondola was abandoned on the south east shore in the early 1960's. After a major National Trust fund raising, she was re-built at the Vickers Shipbuilding yard in Barrow In Furness. She was relaunched on 25th March 1980 and has been in public service since then. | ||
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| Yew Tree Farm, Coniston | |||
| Beatrix Potter 1866 - 1943. Most famous for her drawing and stories of the Peter Rabbit series. "The Tale Of Peter Rabbit" was first published in 1902. She moved to Hill Top, Near Sawrey in 1905 and continued to write. After marrying William Heelis in 1913 she changed her life to become a sheep farmer becoming an expert Herdwick Sheep breeder. She continued to buy property throughout lakeland including: Tarn Hows, Monk Coniston, Yew Tree Farm (above) and many others in the area. She later sold Tarn Hows to The National Trust. Beatrix Potter left 14 farms and 4000 acres of land to the National Trust on her death. | |||
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Arthur Ransome 18 January 1884 - 3 June 1967 Arthur Ransome, originally from Leeds had many holidays around Coniston in his youth. |
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 | His most famous
work was "Swallows And Amazons". Coniston provided much of the
inspiration for this work. Gondola was the inspiration for Captain
Flint's houseboat. |
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Coniston Launch offers special "Swallows And Amazons" Cruises, with full commentary! | |||
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| The Coniston Branch of the Furness Railway ran from Foxfield, near Broughton In Furness, through Woodland, Torver and terminated at Coniston. It was opened to passenger traffic on 18th June 1859. The line remained open to passengers until 4th October 1958, although goods trains continued for another 3+ years. Although the station was later demolished, there is still some evidence left on the site now called Old Furness Road. The stations at Torver and Woodland have since been converted to private dwellings. |
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| A Chapter from the recently
published book "The Story of Coniston" (Copyright reserved) by Alastair Cameron and Elizabeth (Ibby) Brown
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| Info to be uploaded soon |
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 | The Coniston 14 "half marathon" is probably one of the most scenic road races in the athletics calendar. It usually attracts over 1000 entries every year. It starts and finishes at the John Ruskin School and leads you on a glorious route anti clockwise around Coniston Water. | ||
| Link to their website |  | ||
| Walks on the Coniston Fells An excellent new CD-ROM has been produced giving superb photographs, maps and explanatory details of 15 walks of varying distance and hardness. There are sections on local history, geology, attractions, towns and villages, copper, slate, Donald Campbell, wild flowers, the old railway and much more. Covering the area from Dunnerdale to Tarn Hows and from Little Langdale to Blawith, this is a MUST for anyone who loves this area, whether a local person or a visitor. Copies available from the Ruskin Museum, price £14.95 (tel: 015394 41164) |
| "The Story of Coniston" by Ibby Brown and Alistair Cameron. "It's done!! At last the completed work of "The Story of Coniston" has been published. It is two years since the two authors Ibby Brown and Alistair Cameron started the project which has involved at least half the village in one way or another. The result is a hard backed book with full colour dust jacket. There are well over 200 pages describing Coniston's history up to the present day and containing dozens of black and white and colour photographs. the price is £15.95. A word of warning, we are having only a thousand printed and it will go out of print very quickly. If you would like to reserve a book please phone Ibby on 41429 or drop her a line at 3 Vale View, Coniston. LA21 8EZ Ibby Brown & Alistair Cameron
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| Try this link: GENUKI . It details a list of Coniston residents taken in the year 1882. There is also other useful Geneology information here!! |
| Torver
Video To celebrate the Millennium, residents undertook the task of recording, on video, the life of their village. Many scenes of life and activity in the parish have thus been recorded for future generations to see. You can purchase a copy of this excellent film (length 88 minutes) from: Mrs Pat Barr, Crossings Cottage, Torver, Coniston, Cumbria LA21 8BS at a cost of £12.99 each plus Postage and Packing for any deliveries out of the area. |
