Nicholas Size - Tourism

Tourism

In addition to expressing his genuine interest (he also wrote a learned paper on the remains of a Norse mill at Buttermere), the books were a means to promote the business; as a local resident later recalled "He'd do anything to make money." Nicholas had problems with some of the local landowners and farmers, who festooned their boundaries with "No Trespassing" signs, even on wild sheep-pasture. In addition to arguing with such people (earning for himself the name "Old Nick"), in the 1930s he bought two pieces of land himself, the first being in the relatively flat area leading down to Crummock Water, which he developed as a 9-hole golf course. This facility was available free to guests at the hotel, which was subsequently promoted as the "Victoria Golf Hotel". For the less sports-minded, about 1937 he acquired the pretty piece of woodland along the stream opposite the hotel, and opened it to the public under the title of "The Fairy Glen". Local opposition and the Second World War prevented him from bringing his grandest ideas to fruition: a Bavarian-style beer garden at the hotel, complete with brass band; a fully equipped service station for the growing number of cars visiting the valley; and even a chair-lift to the summit of High Crag, at the south end of the lake. Plagued with illness in his last years, he was cared for by his wife at the Buttermere Hotel, which the couple had acquired some years after the Victoria.