Grasmere Fellowship
We should be back in the newly decorated Village Hall for our meeting on December 4th when Alan Cleaver returns to give us a talk about Lakeland Christmas Traditions. We did advertise this talk last year but we were equal- ly entertained by an interesting survey of Cumbrian paths.
Come and join us on 30th November and 7th DecemberUpdates from local groups and activities:
Celebrating 400 years of Grasmere School
We are trying to raise money for a new classroom. Herdy notebooks and raffle tickets are helping us on our way. Please email [email protected] for raffle tickets.
This will only take us so far... In 1680 the village raised subscriptions to build a school and fund a teacher. In the 1800s the community raised the funds to build our current buildings.
What will be the legacy of our 400th year? Could we build one new eco-classroom? This will enable us to reconfigure our buildings to get a hall and kitchen. Please visit our website: www.grasmereschool.com and click on the 400 to support the future of our village. Can this generation lay down the foundations for the next 100 years of our community school?
Jo Goode, Headteacher
Music Notes
Having had a series of interesting musical events in church over the summer, it is time to step back and consider plans for next year, both concerts and music at services. Concerts are not essential to church life, although there are many references to ceremonial music in the bible. However, as an historic church in a "tourist hot-spot", we perhaps have a dual purpose of both worship and cultural activities, of which concerts help attract visitors and residents.
We have a small Music at Grasmere committee, and if anyone would like to join I would be pleased to hear from you, as many hands make light work and fresh ideas are always welcome. Next meeting is at 12.15pm on Sunday 18 January.
As well as Grasmere Glee, we now have the St Oswald Voices, and they will be taking part in the Carol Service on Thursday 18th December at 6.00 p.m. Again, if there are any singers who would like to join in, please contact me for further details.
lan Hare
Grasmere Village Hall
Coffee & Chat
In the winter months, come and enjoy a warm drink, sweet treats, and friendly conversation. Whether you're new to the village or a familiar face, everyone's welcome.
Christmas Fair & Grand Raffle
The Christmas Raffle raised well over £3,000 for building improvements at the Hall. Thank you everyone who bought tickets or donated prizes, your support is very much appreciated.
New Year's Eve Party, 7.30 pm to 1.00 am
Join us for a fun-filled evening to ring in the New Year! Tickets £30 to include finger buffet, unlimited alcoholic & soft drinks, live music, glass of fizz at midnight. Available from Barney's Newsbox or https://ticketsource.co.uk/grasmere-village-hall-co-ltdThe Wainwrights in Winter: climbing 214 Wainwright fells in a single Winter Saturday 10th January 2026, 2.00 pm
David Johnson and Nicky Oliver will be presenting the story of their epic winter journey over all 214 Wainwright fells, featuring their stunning footage from the snowiest winter on the Lakeland mountains for many years. We are expecting a full house for this free event, so please do book tickets online at https://ticketsource.co.uk/grasmere-village-hall- co-ltd.Thursday 29th - Saturday 31st January. Grasmere Players will be performing their pantomime 'Cinderella'. Tickets will be on sale soon!
Lastly, we'd like to thank everyone who has hired the Hall or come along to our events during the year or made donations. Any money we raise goes towards improving the Hall for everyone and your support has made a huge difference! We look forward to seeing you in 2026!Village Hall Car Park: Over the summer, we added a card machine to the car park so you can now pay by card as well as via the RingGo app. Parking is free for all hall-organised events; just enter your registration on the tablet inside. There's also a 30-minute grace period for short visits, so you can drop off, pick up, or pop in without needing to pay. All proceeds go towards running costs and further Hall improvements.
Pam Moreland
Grasmere WI
Our GWI Cumbria Way Challenge is making great progress with monthly team walks ticking off the different stages. We are now at Hawes End on Derwent Water, just 42 miles to go
Here's a few of our other extra regular activities.
Our monthly Book / Culture Group at Allan Bank is a huge success, with a packed attendance and lively discussion in Wordsworth's study. We also have our very popular monthly rambles, fabulous practical Art Group sessions, weekly GWI Strong kettlebell classes with our local personal trainer Libby Dixon (we're getting stronger every week!), weekly GWI Badminton, GWI Craft and Garden Groups - and the list goes on!
We are all so proud of this action-packed programme and this amazing group. A huge thanks to all of our 86 members for making Grasmere WI such a vibrant, friendly and fun group.
Come and join in the fun, you'll be made very welcome. Please get in contact, my details are below.
Louise Sykes
President Grasmere WI 07860 299658 [email protected]
Knit and Nat
K&N is an informal bi-monthly gathering in the Reading Rooms on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month, where Nat is the order of the day and some crafting is done! Refreshments are on hand and company is delightful. Come and join us, if you have a free Tuesday afternoon sometime.
Wordsworth Grasmere
Entry to Dove Cottage, the Museum, exhibition and grounds is free to Grasmere residents and workers.
Little Wanderers, our creative play sessions for under 5s, takes place every Thursday morning at 10.15am during term time. Free for all families. We thank Grasmere School & Nursery for supporting this event.
Discover Poetry with Polly Atkin and Dove Cottage Poets, our poetry reading and writing groups, continue to take place on Zoom and as a hybrid meeting respectively.
For more information and to book, please visit wordsworth.org.uk We hope to see you soon!
Hannah Catterall, Events Officer, Wordsworth Grasmere
Grasmere Book Group
October's book group has a good response to Booker prize winner Alan Hollinghurst's latest novel Our Evenings (2024). The story follows signifi- cant episodes in Dave Win's life across six decades. Only son to a single mother, Dave is also gay and experiences a distinct shift in how he is treat- ed from school to life as a minor actor up until some dramatic events near- ing the book's conclusion. Dave's life is interwoven with Giles who be- comes a politician. Some felt the writing was beautiful, both in language and in observations, but were perplexed that not a huge amount happens. Some also found the characters didn't stand out for them, with many fig- ures in the background. Others enjoyed the evolution of the central charac- ters over the years. One member also recommended we listen to Janáček's piece of music titled Our Evenings.
In November we read Chloe Dalton's nature memoir Raising Hare (2024), the real story of one woman's experiences finding and raising a leveret in the countryside, somewhere in the North of England. William Hague and Angelina Jolie pop up in Dalton's acknowledgements as she once worked as political adviser to Hague, and she credits Jolie with "seeing a writer in me at first sight". The group all enjoyed the memoir, particularly Dalton's vivid descriptions of nature and the hares as characters. We debated the ethical implications of human intervention in animal lives, with one member comparing it to the Prime Directive in Star Trek, prohibiting interference with natural development. Yet, nature rescue was acknowledged to be in tension with this. The same was true of Dalton's unavoidable characterization of the hare, despite not giving it a name. Many of the group shared personal anecdotes about wildlife encounters, highlighting the blurry line be- tween wild and domestic animals.Upcoming meetings:
December 11th - Christiane Ritter, A Woman in the Polar Night (1938) (translated into English from the German in 1954 by Jane Degras)
January 8th - No set book at present, but as tradition dictates we will spend this meeting deciding on our reading for 2026! Suggestions very welcome.
One additional upcoming bookish event ... Saturday, January 10th 2pm at Ambleside Campus, University of Cumbria - Dr Penny Bradshaw will be launching her new book An A-Z of Beatrix Potter (Bloomsbury). Free and open to anyone interested.
Polly and Will - [email protected]Grasmere Village Society
Another year has almost passed and the weather is certainly proclaiming winter! The Society can look back with satisfaction at progress we are making with some larger projects, such as the late Queen's Jubilee accessible village walk and the Daffodil bus shelter repair, but equally with the mundane tasks that help to maintain and improve the village: the litter picking, tree planting, defibrillator and bench maintenance, invasive species control and others that it is easy to take for granted.This is the time of year when we invite members of Grasmere Village Society to renew their membership subscriptions and to encourage others to join us. The annual subscription fee is only £1 per adult and 50p for junior members under the age of 18, although any additional donations are most welcome. The subscriptions and donations are essential to enable us to undertake maintenance of GVS assets around the village and to initiate further improvements. You may join or renew by typing the following into your internet browser: https://forms.microsoft.com/r/u82TuxzaTR? origin=lprLink
The above link is the easiest and quickest way to subscribe, however, if you prefer to complete and return a manual form, please contact our membership secretary, at [email protected] or by phone on 015394 35067, mob 07785 920316. We invite you also to join our Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ grasmerevillagesociety.We also have a Flood Watch and Emergencies Facebook Group with guides on how to keep you and your property safe, and other resources: https://www.facebook.com/groups/grasmerefloodwatch
The village has a robust Community Emergency Resilience Plan which has now been adopted by Lakes Parish Council. This has been set up, and is run by, Grasmere Village Society and we are always looking for more vol- unteers to assist or provide equipment in the event of an emergency whether it be flooding, power cuts, snow and freezing conditions or any other incidents that may arise. Please contact Nick McCraith at [email protected] or Simon Hey at [email protected], phone 015394 35067, mob 07785 920316.The Society has planted a number of trees in the village over the last 2 years, and a new volunteer hedge planting day has been arranged with Natural England and Westmorland and Furness Council in Grasmere on Tuesday 9th December from 10am to 2 pm. There is a national goal to plant 1 tree or 1 metre of hedge per resident over the next few years. If you would like to participate, please email [email protected] for information and to book a place.
As we look forward to 2026 here's wishing you all a Happy Christmas and a very peaceful and healthy New Year. The committee is always looking for new blood and if you would like to contribute then please do not hesitate to step forward and join us.Nick McCraith (Chairman)
St Marys Hospice
Bereavement Champion Training: the session lasts for 2.5-hours and is free to those attending. It will focus on having positive conversations, learning how to support, neighbours, friends and colleagues who have been bereaved. We have delivered the sessions to more than 150 people since April, both in open community sessions and to community groups and local businesses.
In 2026 we are launching a 'train the trainer' programme which will support those who attend the initial training to roll out the pro-gramme in their own communities or locations.
We hope to support the development of compassionate and resilient communities. If you would like to know more contact Alison Alger on 01229 580305
Celebrating Red Squirrels in Winter - And an Exciting New Opportunity to Support Our Work
Winter may seem like a quiet season in the woodland, but for our beautiful red squirrels it is a time full of activity, resilience, and hidden wonder. When frosty mornings sparkle and woodlands fall quiet, you might imagine red squirrels curled up in a long winter's sleep. But unlike some woodland neighbours, these fiery-tailed charmers stay active all season-just in a slower, more careful rhythm. No hibernation for Reds Red squirrels they remain awake through the winter, venturing out even on icy days. Their thick, russet coats grow denser and their ear tufts fluff up into striking, frosted plumes —perfect for extra insulation against biting winds. You might spot them bounding across snowy branches, their stunning russet coats and tufted ears standing out against the winter landscape.
During these months, our conservation work is more important than ever. That's why we are thrilled to share that we have been chosen to be part of the @coopuk Local Community Fund. From now until 17 October 2026, Co-op members can support our mission by selecting us as their local cause. Every time a member shops and chooses us, they directly help protect and preserve our precious red squirrel population. This support enables us to monitor habitats, provide supplemental feeding and raise awareness across local communities.We are also excited to confirm that we will be marking Red Squirrel Appreciation Day with our dedicated charity event at Grasmere Village Hall on 21st January 2026 at 6-8pm. This special day gives us the perfect opportunity to celebrate these enchanting creatures while bringing people together to learn, share, and champion conservation efforts. Together- with your enthusiasm, your voice, and the support of the Co-op community-we can continue to safeguard the red squirrels who bring such colour and life to our landscapes, even in the depths of winter.
IF YOU SEE A GREY or a sickly looking red anywhere around Grasmere PLEASE Text: Stuart Dickson 07980 893459, David Birkett 07775 904236, Stewart Sutcliffe 07817 326524, Trevor Cooper 07884 404794; or email [email protected] you would like to donate please visit https://bit.ly/3yX6FC5 to donate via PayPal or Bank transfer: Grasmere Red Squirrels | 63002884 | 01-09-75 Follow us on Facebook @GrasmereReds Kelly Taylor