Potter, Beatrix: County roots of children's author

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Vivienne Smith unearths the Derbyshire roots of one of the country’s best-loved children’s authors, Beatrix Potter.

Edmund Potter’s printworks in Dinting Vale, Glossop. Potter was the paternal grandfather of author Beatrix Potter

Beatrix Potter and her mother, Helen

Beatrix Potter pictured on her wedding day in 1913

Rupert Potter, father of author Beatrix

Edmund Potter, Beatrix’s grandfather, who established the Dinting Vale Printworks at Glossop

The cloth for the binding of the deluxe editions of two of Beatrix’s books was from the Dinting Vale works at Glossop owned by her grandfather Edmund Potter

The day school set up by Edmund Potter in Dinting Vale

Rupert Potter’s sketch of ducks. Could this have provided the inspiration for his daughter Beatrix's character Jemima Puddle-Duck?

It is just over a century since the appearance of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, the first of Beatrix Potter's beautifully illustrated children’s books which are still read by millions of youngsters today.

Beatrix Potter was born in 1866 in London. Yet, but for a twist of fate, Glossop might well have been her home town, for it was here, in the north-west corner of Derbyshire, that the family business was located.

Her own father grew up in the neighbourhood.

The Potter family originally moved into the district thanks to Beatrix’s paternal grandfather Edmund Potter.

Born in Manchester on January 25, 1802, to a poor family, he first arrived in Glossop at the age of 23 accompanied by his cousin, Charles. Their intention was to set up a calico printing business together.

Having acquired an old mill at Dinting Vale on the edge of town, they started out by using hand-printed wooden blocks to apply coloured dyes to the plain cotton fabric.

Unfortunately, within the year, the government slapped a heavy duty on the print trade. As a consequence, by 1831, the business was virtually bankrupt and the two men agreed to go their separate ways.

But Edmund Potter was no quitter. Vowing to pay back every penny he owed, he cleared all his debts over the next five years.

In that time, he realised more than £24,000 for his creditors, who were so impressed that they presented him with a set of silver salvers in appreciation.

Solvent once more, the Dinting Vale enterprise went from strength to strength. By 1842, Edmund Potter could afford to build a new home for his family who were still living in Manchester.

Dinting Lodge was located close to the printworks, overlooking the firm’s reservoirs which supplied the mills with water. It was here, with his three brothers and three sisters, that Beatrix Potter’s father, Rupert, spent much of his childhood.

Their mother Jessie was considered a beauty in her day. Although originally from Lancaster, she had Derbyshire connections too.

Born a Crompton, she was a descendant of Abraham Crompton who had established the first bank in Derby back in 1685.

Her husband Edmund was also set to make his mark in the county. Over the next 20 years Dinting Vale grew to be the largest calico printing works in the world.

Held in high esteem for their quality designs and innovative use of new dyes, Potter prints won an international reputation.

Not only was Beatrix’s grandfather one of the first to introduce machine printing to the industry, but he was also ahead of his time when it came to providing facilities for his workforce.

Edmund Potter firmly believed that everyone had a right to education. As early as 1840, a day school was established by him at Dinting Vale. He also built a reading room and library for his employees.

An interest in design education led to his involvement in the founding of the Manchester School of Design (later School of Art).

Around the same time, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his achievements on the scientific side of printing.

A close friend of leading politicians John Bright and Richard Cobden, Potter became a Liberal MP himself, for Carlisle, in 1861.

As a result, he spent more and more of his time in London. While retaining a great affection for the town which had been his home for 20 years, the businessman decided to move south.

He and his wife acquired a country estate near Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, known as Camfield Place.

Meanwhile, the printworks in Glossop were left in the capable hands of their eldest boy, Crompton. It had been expected that second son Rupert would also join the family firm. But the man destined to be Beatrix Potter’s father had other plans. Intent on becoming a barrister, he went to study law in London in 1854. It proved quite a culture shock for the lad from Glossop.

Marriage to family friend Helen Leech followed in 1863. She was the daughter of a prosperous cotton merchant from Stalybridge, just a few miles from Dinting Vale.

The newly-weds settled in London in wealthy middle-class comfort. That they were able to do so was largely thanks to Edmund Potter. Through his printing enterprise, the self-made man had accumulated a considerable fortune, enough to benefit all his offspring and their children.

His granddaughter Beatrix certainly grew to be very proud of her ancestry.

As she wrote years later: “My brother and I were born in London because my father was a lawyer there. But our descent, our interests and our joy was in the north country.”

In her youth, she was taken on frequent trips to visit relatives in the Manchester area and in Lancashire. Beatrix also often stayed with her grandparents at their home near Hatfield which was conveniently close to London.

The story of her grandfather’s struggle to establish the family business was a familiar one to the young girl. At Camfield Place the silver salvers, presented to Edmund Potter by his creditors in the early days of the printworks, took pride of place.

From grandmother Jessie, Beatrix also heard about the Crompton side of the family. As a firm believer in heredity, the future author recognised some of the traits in herself.

That she grew up to be a woman with a good head for business no doubt owed something to the genes passed down, not only from Edmund Potter, but also from Derby’s first banker.

Beatrix’s grandfather died in 1883 when she was 17. But her grandmother survived to the grand old age of 90 and they were very close.

As the writer herself once recorded: “I was very much attached to my grandmother Jessie Crompton and said to be very like her, ‘only not so good looking!!’ according to old folks.”

Another talent which young Beatrix inherited, especially from her father, was the ability to draw. Fascinated by the natural world from an early age, she particularly enjoyed sketching animals, birds, insects and plants.

Like other girls of her class in those days, Beatrix did not attend school but was taught at home by a governess. Rupert Potter took a keen interest in his daughter’s artistic activities. When she was about 16, he began to take her with him to exhibitions and art galleries. In this way, she learnt a great deal about pictures and how to look at them.

Her father had had a similar interest in art when he was a young man. While a student of law, he worked on pen and ink drawings in his spare time, especially of birds and animals. In a sketchbook of his, which survives to this day, can be found an illustration of a flying duck wearing a bonnet.

Could this have later helped to inspire his daughter’s much-loved creation Jemima Puddle-Duck?

While encouraging her interest in art, Rupert and Helen Potter certainly did not expect their daughter to make a living in this way. In fact, Beatrix Potter was well into her 30s before she saw her first book in print, in 1901.

Even then she had to have The Tale of Peter Rabbit privately printed after receiving several rejections from publishers.

The idea for the story had come from illustrated letters she had sent to one of the children of her last governess, Annie Moore.

The commercial publication of the work was eventually undertaken a year later by Frederick Warne and Co. Some 50,000 copies were sold within the first 12 months.

Inspired by this success, Beatrix set to work on two further titles, The Tailor of Gloucester and The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, for publication in 1903.

This time she made use of the family business in Glossop. The author herself kept her drawings in a number of portfolios which she had made using various materials produced by her grandfather’s firm.

As with Peter Rabbit, the new publications were to be issued in two different bindings, one in paper and a deluxe edition in cloth.

Having given considerable thought to the requirements of the latter, Beatrix contacted the Dinting Vale Printworks for a selection of calico samples.

As she advised her publishers: “If they had any pattern suitable, there would, of course, be no difficulty in getting E Potter and Co to print in any desired shade of colour, or cloth.”

And so it was that the deluxe editions of The Tailor of Gloucester and The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin appeared in pretty flower-patterned cloth supplied by the Glossop printworks.

The business which had originated with her grandfather some 80 years earlier thus played a part in the launch of Beatrix Potter’s remarkable career.

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This article is from the Derby Evening Telegraph and is reproduced online here.