The land was originally a farm until it was bought by Jeremiah Dixon, mayor of Leeds, in 1784; he began to turn it into something more befitting of a country gentleman, replacing the farmhouse with a villa and moving the local highway (now the A592) away from the edge of the lake to a new route outside of the grounds.[1]
Dixon sold the estate in 1814 to Francis Dukinfield Astley, a wealthy industrialist and poet from Cheshire who was an expert on forestry—he continued to develop Fell Foot into something more "picturesque," with long carriage driveways, boathouses, woodland trails, and "carefully designed views."[2]
Astley's son and heir, Francis Dukinfield Palmer Astley, made the estate his primary residence until 1859, when he sold it to Colonel G. J. M. Ridehalgh—a director of the North Lonsdale Iron and Steel Company, colonel of the 2nd Westmorland Volunteer Battalion Border Regiment, and one of the founder members of the Royal Windermere Yacht Club.[3] Ridehalgh continued the improvements made by the Astleys, planting an arboretum and replacing the modest lakeside facilities with a "small harbour" consisting of three new piers and five new faux-medieval boathouses.[1]
Lithograph, c.1870, showing Fell Foot estate with the villa constructed by Dixon
Ridehalgh died in 1892, and in 1908 his heirs sold the estate to Oswald Hedley—a great-grandson of William Hedley, and a director in the family's substantial coal business.[4] Hedley tore down the villa to build a larger, neo-Jacobean replacement as a gift for his first wife, Marguerite—however, she died suddenly of peritonitis in 1909 and the project was cancelled, with only the cellars for the new house having been built.[1][4] Hedley abandoned the estate, and it remained unused until his third wife, Edith, donated it to the National Trust in 1948 after his death.[5][6]
Current park
The manager's house (originally a gas works which provided lighting for the estate), the boathouses (including one converted to a cafe), a workshop, and the dock are all Grade II listed buildings.[5][7][8][9]
A local sailing and rowing club is located at the park, and rowing boat and kayak hire is available during summer months. Other facilities include car parking, toilets, a gift shop and a playground.[10]
The distinctively crenellated stone-built boathouses
A new watersports centre opened at the north end of the park in 2018.[13] The park holds regular events, including a parkrun event every Saturday[14] and the All England Open Stone Skimming Championships every August.[15]
