Beatrix Potter (Helen Beatrix Heelis) died at Castle Cottage, Near Sawrey, aged 77.
Beatrix Potter, by then known by her married name Helen Beatrix Heelis, died on 22 December 1943 at her home, Castle Cottage, in Near Sawrey in the Lake District, at the age of 77. She had spent her final decades largely devoted to farming, sheep breeding, and land conservation rather than writing.
Her will left the bulk of her substantial estate—including Hill Top farm, numerous other farms, cottages, and roughly 4,000 acres of land, along with her flocks of Herdwick sheep—to the National Trust, then the largest single gift the Trust had ever received. This bequest permanently protected large portions of the Lake District landscape from development and preserved traditional fell-farming practices that continue to this day.
Potter's death marked the end of a life that had progressed from a secluded Victorian childhood, through pioneering (if institutionally rebuffed) scientific research, to global literary fame, and finally to influential land conservation. Her combined legacy as author, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist has made her one of the most celebrated Englishwomen of the early twentieth century, with her books remaining in print and her preserved farms open to the public as part of the National Trust estate.