Elterwater is a village in the English Lake District and the county of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

. The village lies half a mile (800 m) north-west of the lake of Elter Water, from which it derives its name. Both are situated in the valley of

Great Langdale Great Langdale is a valley in the Lake District National Park in North West England, the epithet Great distinguishing it from the neighbouring valley of Little Langdale. Langdale is also the name of a valley in the Howgill Fells, elsewhere i ...

. Elterwater Bridge is a Grade II listed structure dating to at least the 18th century.

Economic activity

In the past, the principal industries have been farming, quarrying for slate and gunpowder manufacture. The first two activities continue, while evidence of the latter survives in the grounds of the Langdale Estate, a holiday development founded in the 1930s and redeveloped as a timeshare in the 1980s. In the present day, tourism is a principal source of income and the village is popular with fell-walkers.

Art

In the 1880s, the Guild of St George founded by

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

revived small-scale linen spinning and weaving in Langdale, at a cottage in Elterwater, led by Albert Fleming and Marion Twelves and continued by Elizabeth Pepper. The decorative textiles became known as Ruskin Lace. In 1947, German artist

Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, Constructivism (art), constructivism, surrealism ...

created one of his in a barn at Cylinders. This three-dimensional artwork, and the entire wall on which it was installed, was moved to the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle in 1965. Artist Bernard Eyre-Walker lived and painted in Elterwater in the 1930s and 40s. Watercolour painter

Thomas Frederick Worrall Thomas Frederick Worrall (1872–1957) was a Staffordshire-born manual worker and talented watercolourist. He lived for a time in Lancashire and in the upper Calder Valley area of Yorkshire but spent most of his adult life in Barry, Vale of Gla ...

's painting ''Elterwater Tarn and Langdale Pikes'' is in the Bishop of Carlisle's house in Keswick. Only a quarter of the houses in Elterwater are permanently occupied, the rest being holiday cottages.

Etymology

" 'The lake frequented by swans', from ON 'elptr'/'alpt' 'swan', in the gen. tive sing. larform with '-ar', and 'water', probably replacing ON 'vatn' 'lake'.

Whooper swan The whooper swan ( /ˈhuːpə(ɹ) swɒn/) (''Cygnus cygnus''), also known as the common swan, pronounced ''hooper swan'', is a large northern hemisphere swan. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North American trumpeter swan, and the type speci ...

s still winter on the lake". (ON is Old Norse).

Gallery

File:Elterwater_road_sign.jpeg, A road sign in Elterwater File:Britannia Inn 2019.jpg, The Britannia Inn, 2019

References

Bibliography

External links

Villages in Cumbria Westmorland South Lakeland District {{cumbria-geo-stub