Windermere and its History No One Wants to Discuss

It was a bit wet this morning in the Lakes, so here is a photograph from yesterday’s walk up Wansfell instead.

This is, of course, Windermere, England’s largest lake, famed for its picturesque scenery but cursed with a history no postcard could capture. And I don’t mean the recent sewage discharge debacle. A favourite with tourists, the lake offers boat tours that once acknowledged its unsavoury connection to the transatlantic slave trade. Wealthy profiteers of human misery, like John Bolton, revelled in the lake’s beauty while amassing fortunes from the enslavement of around 23,000 Africans. Bolton even built himself a mansion, Storrs Hall, a stone’s throw from Belle Isle, which neatly slices the lake from this viewpoint.

Until fairly recently, tour guides on Windermere discussed this sordid history, but, following the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, Windermere Lake Cruises decided to censor the topic. Why? Allegedly due to customer complaints. Though whispers suggest the real reason lies with the current owner of the Storrs Hall Hotel, who would rather not have guests ruminating on chains and whips while sipping their morning tea.

Critics, predictably, decry this as “whitewashing,” and with good reason. Sanitising history for the sake of tourist pounds feels less like progress and more like cowardice. Some former skippers, who resigned over the issue, claim the customer complaints were minimal at best. They suggest the lake’s story should include not just the ugly truth of slavery but also the efforts of abolitionists who fought against it. A balanced approach, if only balance had not been unceremoniously thrown overboard.

This debate—between burying the shameful past and protecting a cheery tourist image—is tiresome but telling. Yes, references to slavery might upset some visitors, but glossing over it insults the memory of those who suffered.

So, should Windermere tours dodge the messy bits of history for the sake of a sunny brochure? Hardly. Confronting the past, unpleasant as it is, remains essential if we hope to build anything resembling a just future. Even a tourist trap should not get a free pass.

Source

Holdsworth, Paul. 2023. ‘Is Windermere Whitewashing Its History of Slavery?’, North West Bylines <https://northwestbylines.co.uk/lifestyle/history/is-windermere-whitewashing-its-history-of-slavery/> [accessed 6 December 2023]