At the heart of one of the Lake District’s most popular and picturesque small towns lies a building simply bursting with Lakeland knowledge.

The Armitt museum in Ambleside packs a real punch when it comes to telling the story of the people, history and heritage of this wonderful part of the world.
The education begins when you examine the very location of the museum. It’s housed in an extension of the old stable block of the former Scale How estate, which was home and workplace to Charlotte Mason, who championed the education of young women and learning through the natural world.
Her archive is now part of The Armitt collection and one of the museum’s key events this year celebrates the centenary of her life and legacy.
The exhibition “Learning Through the Natural World” answers questions about what education was like in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and how Miss Mason established new ideas.

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The Armitt is home to over 9,000 items of material relating to Charlotte Mason, including correspondence with friends and peers and nature notebooks. There are also photographs showing how students lived and studied under Miss Mason at the House of Education, which she opened in Ambleside in 1892. The exhibition runs until December.
The Armitt is just one of the venues being highlighted by the Culture in South Lakes project, which has received £92,294 from the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, being administered by Westmorland and Furness Council.
The museum’s “Beatrix Potter: Passions in Paint” exhibition reveals the lesser-known side of the famous author of the Peter Rabbit books. From a young age she had a remarkable artistic instinct and sharp attention to detail.
You can view artworks from her early adulthood which capture the essence of what she was drawing and show what she was passionate about in her own life – mycology (the study of fungi), archaeology and natural history.
The Armitt Talks series continues through May with The Tucker Family – Lake District Artists 1865-1945 (Tuesday, May 16, 2pm).
Other key events include a Cyanotype printing workshop with Chris Routledge (Tuesday, May 9 at 1pm) and a book signing of the new “Hardwick Drummond Rawnsley: An Extraordinary Life 1851-1920” with author Rosalind Rawnsley (Friday, May 19, 5.30pm).
There’s also a Family Workshop: Nature as Teacher with Leah Boden and Lynn Seddon (Tuesday, May 30 at 1.30pm). If your legs are weary after walking the fells, why not visit The Armitt and give your brain a bit of a workout as well?
Events can be booked online at www.armitt.com or for more inspiration on arts, culture and heritage in South Lakes go to www.visitlakedistrict.com/cultureinsouthlakes