Potter donated the 20-acre Hill Top farmstead and other land to the National Trust, an early act of Lake District conservation.
On 10 October 1922, Beatrix Potter donated the 20-acre Hill Top farmstead at Near Sawrey, along with additional land, to the National Trust. Hill Top, purchased by Potter in 1905 with royalties from her books following the death of her fiancé Norman Warne, had served as both her personal retreat and the setting for many of her illustrations.
This gift was one of the earliest significant contributions to what would become one of the most important private conservation efforts in British history. Potter, working closely with her friend Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, one of the National Trust's founders, became deeply committed to preserving the traditional farmed landscape, vernacular buildings, and Herdwick sheep-farming culture of the Lake District against the pressures of development and tourism.
Over the following two decades, Potter continued to purchase farms and land throughout the region using her literary royalties, ultimately amassing over 4,000 acres, which she bequeathed to the National Trust upon her death in 1943. This 1922 donation of Hill Top marked the beginning of a legacy that today allows millions of visitors to experience the preserved landscape she loved, and established her as one of the most significant private benefactors in the history of British countryside conservation.