Inspired by the Lake District
This blog post first appeared on the Lake District Heritage website 26/09/18
Lake District World Heritage status is grounded in poets, authors and painters, with the inscription coming under the Cultural Landscape category. However those same beautiful lakes and fells that inspired Wordsworth and Ruskin serve as inspiration for all we here at Pure Lakes make, from shampoo and soap to cleanser and toner.
Running a manufacturing business in a rural part of the UK, let alone a national park, can be challenging. The high cost of living, issues surrounding public transport and logistical concerns regarding supply chains are just some.
So, why do we do it? Why not make our skincare products in an urban industrial estate or have them made for us by a third party?
Just one look out of our window at the surrounding fells is enough to help answer this question.
In addition, a significant part of the Pure Lakes Skincare ethos is the fact that we make all our products ourselves, helping to create demand for local services and shops here in the Lake District National Park.
For Claire and I this is important. Pure Lakes is much more than a way for us to earn a living, important as such might be. It helps resolve the tension between the National Park as a tourism destination and a place where people live and work all year round. For Pure Lakes, increasing visitor numbers means more job creation and ultimately more demand for every-day services such as schools and doctors’ surgeries.
We believe that World Heritage status will raise awareness of the Lake District National Park throughout the world and help to support businesses such as our own, many of which are heavily reliant on the visitor economy.
Wordsworth wrote of the 'grandeur in the beatings of the heart’. It is indeed heartening to think that the fells and lakes he loved continue to inspire many small businesses locally, in turn supporting working communities that have been here for millennia and that help make the Lake District what it is today.
