The Armitt Museum and LIbrary

With rain forecast all day I looked for somewhere dry to go and remembered this museum that I've been meaning to visit for years.  I can recommend a Thursday because on a Thursday afternoon the museum has the keys to The Bridge House and you can go and look inside. 
The museum concentrates on three women who had an enormous influence on the Lake District. 
-  Louisa Armitt (1851 - 1911) , teacher, musician , ornithologist and writer whose collection of books formed the basis of the library here.
- Charlotte Mason (1823 - 1923) educator and reformer, of girls education in particular, who founded the House of Education for governesses in Ambleside that became a teachers training college and is now part of Cumbria University.  She would be proud. 
- Beatrix Potter (1866 - 1943) writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist. She needs no further introduction but the museum does have some originals of her books. 

The library that started in 1912 with the books of the three women mentioned and other bequests from friends,  now holds over  11,000 books on local topics and local people that can be looked at by the public but not taken out of the library.  It holds the fascinating archives of the Fell and Rock Climbing Club going back to inception in 1906    After exploring the museum.  I spent a happy half hour in the library pouring over a book on ancient trackways to work out how St Cuthbert got to Kentmere.