The history of The Forest Side From a Grasmere farm to a Victorian house and the place we know today.

The date on the side of The Forest Side reads 1853, but the story of this corner of Grasmere begins much earlier.

Sheltering beneath steep woodland on the road towards Keswick, the house stands on land once occupied by a farm, a smithy and buildings serving travellers and their horses. Over the centuries, it has welcomed people to Grasmere for very different reasons.

Before the Victorian house

In the late seventeenth century, the buildings here included a smithy and an ostler’s house serving the nearby Swan Inn, where horses were changed during journeys through the Lakes.

By the early nineteenth century, Forest Side was a farm in its own right. Parson and White’s Directory of 1829 lists John Dixon as its yeoman farmer. The farm appears on the tithe map of 1838 and continued to feature in local directories until 1851, when Edward Walker was farming here.

William Wordsworth knew this landscape, walking from nearby Dove Cottage with his sister, Dorothy. His poem Michael, written around 1800, tells the story of a shepherd whose circumstances eventually force his land into a stranger’s hands. Its opening places him here in Grasmere Vale:

“Upon the forest-side in Grasmere Vale
There dwelt a shepherd; Michael was his name…”

A new house for a changing Lake District

The arrival of the railway at Windermere in 1847 made the Lake District more accessible. Wealthy professionals from northern towns and cities began building houses where they could enjoy the scenery and fresh air.

The Forest Side was part of that change.

In October 1852, the Westmorland Gazette announced the auction of property belonging to William Walker. By November 1853, the newspaper was reporting that 47 people working on Stephen Heelis’s new mansion at Forest Side had been treated to a substantial supper at a local hotel.

The occasion appears to have marked progress towards completing the house that stands here today.

Stephen Heelis and the walled gardens

Born in Bolton in 1801, Stephen Heelis was a successful Manchester solicitor. His main home was in Salford, where he lived with his wife, Ann, and their seven children.

He became Mayor of Salford between 1855 and 1857, declining a knighthood offered during his second year. He was also a founder of the Manchester Law Society and one of the first trustees of Owens College, which later became part of the University of Manchester.

At The Forest Side, Heelis created the extensive walled gardens that remain an important part of the grounds. In September 1858, the Westmorland Gazette praised gardener Mr Roberts for his success in growing fruit against their walls.

Following the deaths of his youngest daughter and his wife, Heelis put the property up for sale in 1859. He died in 1871 and is buried in Grasmere churchyard alongside his wife, daughter and a son.

New owners

James Harrison followed Heelis as owner. An undated estate plan records a purchase price of £7,000, and a newspaper advertisement places Harrison at Forest Side by August 1860. His stay appears to have been brief: a sale of furniture was advertised the following year.

By April 1863, the house was home to Sheffield silversmith Charles Frederick Younge and his wife, Emily Barker. Their daughter, Edith Mary, was born in June 1864 and christened at Grasmere Church that August.

Charles died in November 1866. Emily retained the property for a number of years before offering it at auction in Manchester in June 1888.

The sale particulars describe a substantial country estate: the mansion, a coach house, two stables, two cottages, a walled kitchen garden, a conservatory and a vinery. Pleasure grounds, shrubberies and an avenue of trees surrounded the house, with meadow and pasture bringing the estate to approximately 50 acres.

The property was advertised for auction again in 1893, this time in London.

The Brownbill years

Liverpool businessman and Justice of the Peace Edmond Brownbill was listed as the owner by 1897.

The Brownbill family remained here in 1914, when Kelly’s Directory described Forest Side as one of Grasmere’s principal residences. Edmond died in December that year, having owned the house for around 17 years.

Opening the house to more people

The early twentieth century brought a different chapter. William Alexander Duncan was recorded as owner in 1921, followed by Thomas Dixon in 1925, when the property appeared under the commercial section of the local directory.

By 1929, Forest Side belonged to the Co-operative Holidays Association. The organisation offered countryside holidays to young working people, giving them a break from industrial towns and cities.

Days were spent walking, with communal meals and social activities bringing everyone together in the evenings. A house built as a private retreat had become somewhere many more people could experience the Lakes.

Forest Side remained with the organisation, later known as the Countrywide Holidays Association, until the end of the twentieth century, when it became a hotel.

The next chapter

In July 2014, we acquired The Forest Side and began restoring the house and gardens.

That work opened another chapter in its history. Today, people come to walk the same fells, enjoy the gardens, gather around a table and spend time together in this old Grasmere house. Each stay, each celebration and each dinner with friends adds something to the story of this magnificent building. We’d love you to be part of it.