In the winter of 1854, Sarah Nelson perfected a spiced cross between biscuit and cake in the front room of a 1630s schoolhouse where Wordsworth had once taught the village children. She sold the first slices from a table on a tree stump outside the door. A hundred and seventy-one years later, her great-niece's nephew's daughter, Joanne Hunter, and her husband Andrew (the only person alive who can read Sarah's original parchment) still bake it every morning on the same flagstone floor.
Every packet of Grasmere Gingerbread is mixed and baked on site in the morning, sleeved in greaseproof and stamped with Sarah's 1854 trademark. The rum butter is potted by hand in small batches. The hampers are built behind the counter, then walked across the village to the post office. Group tours run all year, except the four days the shop closes.
Mixed and baked from scratch every morning in the front room of Church Cottage, on the same stone floor Sarah used in 1854. Sold in packets of six pieces, wrapped in greaseproof and slipped into a wax-paper sleeve carrying her hand-stamped trademark. The texture is the point: chewy at the base, sandy on top, spiced for warmth without heat. Posted UK-wide in tins for the larder, or eaten on a Grasmere bench within minutes of leaving the counter.
Hand-blended in small batches and potted by hand. Cumberland Rum Butter goes on oatcakes, on hot toast, on the Christmas pudding, and, in old Cumbrian custom, on the spoon at a child's christening. Award-winning and recognised by the Great Taste judges. Posted in glass jars, sealed for the larder shelf.
A wooden hamper or wicker basket built around the gingerbread and the rum butter, then layered with our toffee, fudges, ginger conserves, chocolates and Cumbrian preserves. Each one packed in the Church Cottage workroom and shipped UK-wide and internationally. Sweden, Chile, the United States, Australia and most of mainland Europe reachable on a single postage run.
Pre-booked groups (six or more) get a twenty to thirty-minute walk through the recipe, Sarah's story, the wax-sealed parchment and the 1630 schoolhouse where Wordsworth taught the village children. Includes fresh gingerbread with tea or coffee and an oatcake with Cumberland Rum Butter. £3.50 adult, £2.50 child.
The shop fits two or three customer groups at the counter, so there is usually a queue running past the lychgate at St Oswald's. The smell of fresh gingerbread hangs in the village all day. Wordsworth's grave is two minutes away.
Sarah Kemp was born in Bowness-on-Windermere in 1815. She married Wilfred Nelson in Penrith in 1844 and lost their son John to cholera in 1852. The family moved across the valley to Grasmere and took rooms at Church Cottage, a 1630 building put up by public subscription as the village schoolhouse, where William Wordsworth taught local children before a larger school was built nearby.
In the winter of 1854, Sarah perfected a spiced sweet she called simply Grasmere Gingerbread. She sold the first slices from a table on a tree stump outside her front door, wrapped in parchment, for villagers and the new Victorian railway visitors. She kept baking through the loss of both daughters to tuberculosis (Dinah in 1869, Mary Ann in 1870) and her husband (1880). She died in 1904, aged 88.
The recipe passed to a great niece, then to Daisy Hotson, then to the Wilson family. In 2000 it passed to the third generation Wilsons, Joanne (Hunter, née Wilson) and her husband Andrew. Andrew broke the wax seal on Sarah's parchment, memorised the recipe, and re-sealed the stamp. He is still the only living person who has read it.
"Part of me likes not knowing, that I can still appreciate the air of mystery that surrounds it." Joanne Hunter, owner, on the recipe
What sets Grasmere Gingerbread apart is what it is not. Not a biscuit, not a cake, not a ginger snap. The base sets chewy like soft fudge; the top stays sandy and crumb-like; the spice carries warmth without heat. The recipe has been held by exactly one person at a time for 171 years.
For hampers, mail-order packs going overseas, or to book a group tour for six or more, tell us a little about what you are after. We answer every note from the shop, usually before the next morning's bake.
We post UK-wide on a weekday despatch and internationally twice a week. International boxes carry a customs declaration; we have shipped to Sweden, Chile, the United States, Australia, Canada and most of mainland Europe in the past year alone.
Group tours run twenty to thirty minutes, by booking only. £3.50 per adult and £2.50 per child includes a fresh slice of gingerbread with tea or coffee and an oatcake with Cumberland Rum Butter. We open six days a week for tours, closed only Christmas Eve to Boxing Day and Good Friday.
The shop sits in the corner of St Oswald's churchyard, between the Wordsworth Hotel and the Heaton Cooper Studio. Coaches park at Stock Lane car park, a four-minute walk; Broadgate Meadow is closer on foot. The queue runs along the church wall most summer afternoons.
Yes. Sarah Nelson's original parchment lives in a NatWest bank vault, currently the Windermere branch. Andrew Hunter is the only living person who has read it; he broke the wax seal in 2000, memorised the recipe, and re-sealed the parchment with a fresh stamp. The recipe is trademarked and the seal is re-applied annually.
Walk-in for the shop itself. The space inside Church Cottage fits two or three customer groups at the counter, so queues run along the church wall on summer afternoons. Groups of six or more should book the twenty-minute tour ahead at £3.50 adult, £2.50 child.
Four free spaces immediately outside the shop, usually full. Stock Lane village car park is a four-minute walk and where the coaches stop. Broadgate Meadow is a short walk in the other direction.
Yes. We post the Original Grasmere Gingerbread, rum butter and hampers worldwide. Sweden, Chile, the United States, Australia, Canada and most of mainland Europe go out on a regular postage run from the village.
Card only. The shop is cashless, which keeps the queue moving in a space that fits two or three groups at a time.
Guide dogs and assistance dogs only. The shop is too small for anything else, and the gingerbread comes off the cooling rack within arm's reach of the counter.
Sarah's original 1854 recipe contains wheat flour and dairy. There is no gluten-free or vegan version of the Original Grasmere Gingerbread. Some of the toffees, fudges and conserves carry their own allergen labels on the jar.