Project Background

The story of the Windermere Steamboat Collection began in the 1890s with the arrival in the Lake District of the newly wealthy Manchester industrialists and their families, eager to escape the smog and squalor of the city for weekends and holidays. Financially successful and socially ambitious, these men built imposing houses and opulent steamboats to demonstrate their success and to make the most of their weekend retreats. This combination of wealth and ambition created a ‘golden age’ of steamboating on the lake, where grand steam yachts and gleaming teak launches would ply the lake, hosting tea-parties and formal dinners.

It was the passing of this era which drove the museum’s founder, George Pattinson, to rescue what he could of Windermere’s elegant heritage. The group of boats that forms the Windermere Steamboat Museum collection was largely amassed by George Pattinson, a local builder with a passion for the boating history of the Lake District. Some he owned, whilst others were donated or given on long term loan by boat enthusiasts to The Windermere Nautical Trust to be displayed in the purpose built Museum that opened in 1977. Several, including the world famous Dolly, were raised from the lakebed with the assistance of divers George Pattinson wanted the public to see the boats afloat on the lake, where they could be appreciated on the water for which they were built, and where he could still steam them on the lake for demonstrations. This decision created a more lively museum, with only the most delicate boats in dry displays, but also made for a long-term problem in terms of conservation.

The beauty and rarity of the boats was apparent, but so too was their desperate need for expensive, expert attention. Lakeland Arts first received the collection of vintage steamboats, yachts and motorboats in Lieu of Inheritance Tax; this was the first time that boats had been accepted by HM Government in Lieu of Tax, confirming the importance of the collection. This gift formed the catalyst for a series of events, the first being the transferral of the Windermere Steamboat Museum site to Lakeland Arts, together with a number of other important craft. This in turn released a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund given to fund the salvage programme for the boats. This was unprecedented as the NHMF’s usual remit is to fund purchases of important pieces of land and artworks.