Painting

1913–1943

Thirty years of marriage: nieces and Girl Guides

Beatrix and William Heelis enjoyed a happy marriage of thirty years and carried on their farming and preservation work through the hard days of the Second World War. They had no children, but Beatrix played an important part in William’s large family, helping to educate several nieces, comforting and aiding his brothers and sisters, and letting Girl Guide troops camp on her land in the summer.

late 1920s

Prize-winning Herdwicks: Potter as a show judge

By the late 1920s Beatrix and her Hill Top farm manager Tom Storey had made a name for their prize-winning Herdwick flock, which took many prizes at local agricultural shows, where Potter herself was often asked to judge.

1929–1932

Late books: “The Fairy Caravan” and “Sister Anne”

In 1929 came the semi-autobiographical “The Fairy Caravan”, a tale set in her beloved Troutbeck fells, published only in the US in her lifetime (in Britain not until 1952). “The Tale of Little Pig Robinson”, written much earlier, was published in 1930, and in 1932 “Sister Anne”, her version of the Bluebeard story for American readers, illustrated by Katharine Sturges.

1930

The Monk Coniston Estate with the National Trust

In 1930 the Heelises became partners of the National Trust in buying and managing the fell farms of the large Monk Coniston Estate, which included Tarn Hows. For seven years Beatrix was the Trust’s de facto estate manager, until it could afford to buy most of the property back from her.