User:Retroplum/Windermere

Windermere is the largest natural lake in England, and with a length of 18.08 km it is also the longest. It is located within the Lake District National Park in the county of Cumbria. Historically, Windermere marked the border of the lands belonging to the monks of Furness and the lands belonging to the Barons of Kendal. After c. 1226 it marked the border of the counties of Westmorland and Lancashire.

The surrounding region was sparsely populated until the construction of the Kendal and Windermere Railway in 1847, after which the area became one of the country's most popular places for holidays and summer homes.

It is a ribbon lake that formed in a glacial trough following the retreat of ice at the start of the current interglacial.

Etymology
The etymology of Windermere, also known as Winandermere until the nineteenth century, is subject to several different theories. According to Berry's The Lake District, the name comes from the Old Norse "Vinandr mere", meaning "Vinandr's mere", where "Vinandr" is an Old Norse name. The suffix "-mere" comes from Old English and simply means "lake". An alternative theory, offered by Charnock in his Local Etymology: A Derivative Dictionary of Geographical Names, suggests "Winander" comes from the Welsh "gwyn hên dwr", meaning "the clear ancient lake", or it is a corruption of "Winder" which comes from "gwen dwr", simply meaning "the clear lake".

"Mere" usually refers to a lake which is broad in relation to its depth, but this is not the case for Windermere.[CITE] In addition, Windermere has a noticeable thermocline, distinguishing it from typical meres.[CITE] Until at least the early nineteenth century it was also known as Windermere Water. Today, it is often called Lake Windermere, perhaps to distinguish the lake from the nearby town of Windermere, which gets its name from the lake. According to the poet Norman Nicholson: "a certain excuse for the tautology can be made in the case of Windermere, since we need to differentiate between the lake and the town, though it would be better to speak of 'Windermere Lake' and Windermere Town', but no one can excuse such ridiculous clumsiness as 'Lake Derwentwater' and 'Lake Ullswater'".

History
One of the earliest written mentions of Windermere is in a work of Symeon of Durham dated c. 1130, where it is recorded as Wonwoldremere. Symeon wrote about the actions of Æthelred I of Northumbria shortly after he came to the throne: "He took the young sons of the saintly King Ælfwald out of their sanctuary in York Minster with false promises of safety, and sent them away to be secretly drowned in Windermere". The lake is mentioned in a charter of Henry II dated c. 1157–1163 where it is called Wynandrem'. In this instance, Windermere as mentioned as forming part of the border between the lands of the monks of Furness Abbey and the lands of the Barons of Kendal. A final concord dated 1196 again mentions Windermere (this time as Winendremer), where the lake is used to describe the boundaries of a parcel of land granted to Gilbert fitz Roger fitz Reinfried, Baron of Kendal, and his wife Helewise by the monks of Furness.

The region surrounding Windermere was sparsely populated until the mid-nineteenth century, but it continued to be important for the purposes of marking boundaries. The lake and its feeder river, the Brathay, marked the western border of the county of Westmorland with the neighbouring county of Lancashire, following Westmorland's creation in 1226 or 1227. Since at least the twelfth century the main industries around Windermere and the other nearby lakes have been the growing of crops on the valley floors and the grazing of animals, particularly Herdwick sheep, on the fells. Other historically sizeable local industries included mining, smelting, pig farming, and charcoal burning.

Windermere and the wider Lake District have been a popular destination for tourists since at least the mid-eighteenth century. In 1778 Father Thomas West's Guide to the Lakes was published, wherein a spot on the eastern slopes of Claife Heights overlooking Windermere is named as the number one "station" to visit. From the 1770s onwards the natural landscape of Windermere was altered by the building of villas and the careful construction of aesthetically pleasing gardens and arboreta. The first such intervention was the construction of a circular house on Belle Isle, the largest island on the lake.

In the two decades following the publication of West's guide artists and poets flocked to the Lake District, including Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, the three main figures of the group later known as the Lake Poets.

LAKE POETS - CONFLICTING VIEWS - REASONS FOR INCREASED TOURISM

In the 1840s it was decided that a new railway should be built from Oxenholme via Kendal to Windermere. There was local opposition to the plan, including from those who were forced to sell their land to the railway company, and public opposition from William Wordsworth, by that time Poet Laureate, who wrote to the House of Commons, the Board of Trade, and a number of newspapers to express his dissatisfaction with the plan. Wordsworth also wrote a sonnet criticising the planned railway which was published in the Morning Post in 1844. Nevertheless, Royal Assent was granted to the plan in 1845, and by 1847 the railway had been completed.