Locals add to flavour of Miss Potter

11:50am Friday 22nd December 2006

It must be disconcerting to see your home starring in a Hollywood movie.

But at least Caroline and Jon Watson are used to the attention, as their house, Yew Tree Farm near Coniston, has long been one of the most photographed buildings in the Lake District.

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However, now that attention is set to go world wide as Yew Tree Farm has a starring role in Miss Potter in which it doubles as Hill Top - Beatrix Potter's Near Sawrey home.

There is poignancy to the choice of Yew Tree, as it also once belonged to Beatrix Potter.

Caroline Watson, who was at the première on Sunday, said of the film: "I thought it was wonderful.

"It's enchanting and really beautiful and the Lakes look absolutely stunning."

Following the January 5 release of the film, there are likely to be even more admirers of the farm, where there is also a bed and breakfast business, and a tearoom for walkers and cyclists.

Filming had been good fun, she said: "It was very hard work and quite stressful at times but it was great."

Philip Johnston, the owner of The Coppermines and Lakes Cottages holiday accommodation business, loaned some of his collection of Lakeland farming implements as props for Miss Potter.

He said that a red cart which cropped up several times in the movie was on its way to the community-run Coniston tourist information centre to join other props and a mannequin of the film's star, Renée Zellweger.

Richard Greenwood, the development director at Cumbria Tourism, said that he was left wanting more after viewing Miss Potter.

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