In the second of a two-part series, Lake District freelance journalist and writer ANDREW WILSON, now living in Morecambe, looks at the life of Henry Leigh Groves, one of the great benefactors to Windermere in the first half of the twentieth century.

IN FEBRUARY 1926, Henry Leigh Groves’ father, Willliam, offered £5,000 to Windermere Council “towards the purchase and development” of the Ellerthwaite house and gardens in Windermere as a site for a central library and meeting rooms, and Toc H had a room there.

In April 1926 the house and gardens were conveyed to Windermere UDC as “Public Library Authority” - and the library became known as the “Groves Library” (which it still is.) William Groves died aged 80 at Holehird, a Victorian mansion overlooking Windermere, on June 27, 1927, just a week before the Prince of Wales, on a tour of the Lakes, visited Ellerthwaite on July 1 as patron of Toc H to look at the Toc H room.

It then fell to his son, Leigh, to show the Prince around Ellerthwaite.

In 1938 Leigh Groves was appointed an Alderman of Westmorland County Council and also made High Sheriff of Westmorland.

He decided to celebrate his appointment and his 25 years on Windermere UDC, by giving Windermere UDC £6,000 to enable them to buy the bed of the lake from the Earl of Lonsdale, who had suggested they buy it.

This was described as “a truly munificent gift” by the then Town Clerk, Tom Watson.

In 1939 a plaque commemorating the gift was erected on Bowness Promenade, and it is still there.

It can be seen on a boulder in the grass near the cruise ticket offices and reads: “Windermere (except the islands therein) certain parts of the foreshore thereof, including land in Bowness Bay and Waterhead Bay, and certain rights in respect thereof, were acquired by the Urban District Council of Windermere on the 5th day of April, 1939, through the generosity of Henry Leigh Groves of Holehird, Windermere, to commemorate his year of office (1938-9) as High Sheriff of Westmorland and twenty five years membership of the said Council.”

After the Second World War, Leigh Groves decided to give the entire Holehird Estate to Westmorland County Council for “the better development of the health, educational and social welfare services of the County of Westmorland”. A Trust was agreed with the county council in 1945.

Eventually in 1961 the mansion was rented for a nominal sum to the Cheshire Homes, and later the gardens, which had been loved by Muriel Groves, were taken over and restored by the Lakeland Horticultural Society, which was founded in 1969. His great niece, the politician Baroness (Shirley) Williams, has written that the gardens “are still a joy to see”.

In 1958 Leigh and Muriel moved out of Holehird mansion to Boot Gate, a smaller property on the estate, which they had had built.

He resigned from the county council in March 1968 because of ill health, after a distinguished career with them lasting 47 years.

This had been recognised by his being awarded the OBE the year before. He died in May 1968, aged 87. Muriel died in 1971.