Groups Heading to England S Most Beautiful Lake Ullswater Will Be Thrilled by What They
Trade Press Pack Release November 17, 2011
Ullswater ‘Steamers’ Announces Exciting Group Cruises For A Jubilee Year
Groups heading to England’s most beautiful lake – Ullswater – will be thrilled by what they discover in 2012, as award-winning lake cruise company, Ullswater ‘Steamers’ lays on a variety of tempting offers and experiences for the group travel market.
There will be a distinctly regal feel to the 2012 season, as Lake District-based Ullswater ‘Steamers’ celebrates the heritage of its five ‘ladies-in-waiting’ – its wonderful boats Lady of the Lake, Raven, Lady Dorothy, Lady Wakefield and the Western Belle - by creating some charming and memorable experiences, in what will be a Diamond Jubilee year for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
2012 marks the 135th anniversary of Ullswater ‘Steamer’ Lady of the Lake, thought to be the oldest working passenger vessel in the world. Lady of the Lake was first launched on the lake in 1877 – the year Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India. She is steeped in history and tales of survival against all odds.
This historic link will see Ullswater ‘Steamers’ offering Victorian/Raj-themed cruises during 2012, which could be booked by groups wishing to travel back in time and live life like a Victorian. This could be to simply soak up the exhilaration provided by the stunning scenery once enjoyed by Victorian tourists to The Lakes, or by recreating the sort of port-out-starboard-home POSH journey experienced by the Victorians travelling to the Indian Empire.
These cruises would be ideal for history societies or heritage enthusiasts, who will be more than welcome to dress up in costume and bring their parasols along for shade!
Despite having new product and group options, groups and coach parties wanting the ever-more-popular core product will be able to enjoy the same idyllic experience on the lake as in previous years. England’s second largest lake is composed of three different stretches, bending in a serpentine fashion thanks to its glacial past – a fact that offers passengers different aspects as the cruise unravels, but one that is always set against the glorious Lakeland fells and an imposing mountain landscape that includes mighty Helvellyn.
Cruises can be enjoyed on a chartered basis by groups wanting total privacy and exclusive use of the vessel, perhaps for a private, family celebration or product launch, or by joining a scheduled service. On the latter, the group can enjoy a full round trip covering 7.5 miles, from Glenridding at the bottom of the lake to Pooley Bridge at the top, or vice versa, or opt for a single trip cruise and pick-up from the pier at which it disembarks.
There is also the option for a group of outdoor enthusiasts to sail to Howtown and then take a lakeshore walk back to Glenridding. This low-level walk covering 7 miles/1km takes around 3-4 hours – plenty of time for a driver to get some rest and refreshments.
With enhanced pier facilities at both Glenridding and Pooley Bridge, cafes, toilets on board the boats and at the pierhouses, free coach parking at Glenridding and gift shops, there is everything the group could need as part of their glorious day out in the Lake District.
With the growth in popularity of Countryfile, Springwatch and Autumnwatch, groups are now beginning to request nature cruises, which Ullswater ‘Steamers’ can provide, subject to availability. These could be charters focused on a particular experience, such as the Red Deer Rut or birdwatching with the RSPB. Experiences like this were fundamental to Ullswater ‘Steamers’ continued success at the Virgin Responsible Tourism Awards in 2011 and its acquisition of Gold Green Tourism Business Scheme status. Winners of the Cumbria Sustainable Tourism Award in 2011 and due to represent their county at the 2012 Enjoy England Awards
Alternatively, a group might wish to book a photography workshop day out or a food-themed cruise based around local produce. Here, Ullswater ‘Steamers’ can work with environmental partners and other local businesses, to create a package that suits a group’s specific needs.
All enquiries about group bookings for Ullswater ‘Steamers’ cruises, charters and experiences can be taken on 017684 82229. Further information about Ullswater ‘Steamers’ is available at or by emailing
Group rates apply to parties of 12 persons or more, if booked in advance and there is a further 20% discount for parties travelling before 10am. All passengers booked on a one-way cruise between Pooley Bridge and Glenridding or vice versa and all booked on a round the lake, two-hour cruise, receive a Lake Guide. All tour guides and group travel organisers travelling with groups enjoying these experiences receive a Pocket History of Ullswater for Tour Guides publication. Coach drivers and tour guides can enjoy free teas and coffees whilst at the pierhouses or on board the boat. ENDS
Press calls: Jane Hunt, Catapult PR, 01253 891114 –
Travel trade press pack – info sheet November 17, 2011
Packages From Piers – Combined Attraction Group Travel Options From Ullswater ‘Steamers’
A new suite of group travel options awaits coach parties and groups wishing to combine an idyllic Ullswater cruise with a visit to another local attraction in 2012. Sailings take place all year round, so there is every opportunity to do something different on Ullswater according to the season.
In Wordsworth’s Footsteps - £10 per person
Perfect for spring and summer, this cruise is our piers and poetry package, enabling the group to combine an atmospheric cruise amidst nature with a visit to the home of England’s most well-known romantic poet and nature lover, William Wordsworth. The package includes a one-hour cruise and a tour of Dove Cottage in Grasmere. There, Wordsworth wrote his most famous of poems, Daffodils, after gleaning inspiration from Lenten Lilies dancing in the wind on the shores of Ullswater, which he saw as he walked to Grasmere with his sister Dorothy on a stormy day in 1802. Although the package can be enjoyed from March to November, the month of April is probably the one to ring on the calendar for groups wishing to see the daffodils on the lakeshore.
Cruise And Cream Tea – from £14 per person
Ullswater ‘Steamers’ works in partnership with historic home, Dalemain, to offer a group the opportunity to build up an appetite during a cruise on England’s second largest lake and then indulge themselves with a cream tea served the Dalemain way. Famed for being the home of the World’s Original Marmalade Festival, Dalemain is located just a short drive from Pooley Bridge, making it an ideal venue for this most British of treats.
Cruise and a Cumbrian Brunch
Ullswater ‘Steamers’ can point a group in the direction of a number of Lakeland inns at which a traditional Cumbrian brunch could be enjoyed, packed with local flavour and the fresh taste of produce reared and grown on Cumbria’s fells.
Lake Tour, Tinsel and Turkey
Our stunning lake can be at its most serene and beautiful in the winter months, particularly when a dusting of snow on mighty Helvellyn adds a seasonal twist to the appeal of the year-round, picture postcard scenery. Groups travelling at this time of year can combine a cruise with a turkey and tinsel lunch laid on at a Lakeside inn, to get everyone in the food for seasonal festivities and the New Year ahead.
Fish and Chip Cruises
Groups on tour, wishing to do something different in the evening, could join one of our scheduled Fish and Chip cruises. These incredibly popular two-hour cruises include fish and chips delivered to the boat just prior to departure by a top local eatery and entertainment on board while passengers devour their supper feast and drink in the scenery. All of the boats are licensed, so there’s everything a group needs to unwind for the evening.
For further details and prices of all of these group options, please contact Richard Monke Steel or Rachel Butler on 017684 82229 or email ENDS
Press calls: Jane Hunt, Catapult PR, 01253 891114 –
Travel trade press pack release 3 November 17, 2011
Location, Exhilaration, Education – Ullswater ‘Steamers’ Unique Blend Of Interest-Packed Excursions For Schools
Ullswater ‘Steamers’ cruises put the C into Curriculum, offering Concise facts, Creative applications of information and a Clever way to get youngsters interested in the great outdoors, breathing in fresh air and accruing the health benefits of physical exercise in a way that seems more fun than foe when its part of a day out on a lovely lake.
Taking children out into a stunning natural environment can both open their eyes and widen their window on the world of nature. This world comes to life during a cruise, as children spot species from within the rich local biodiversity living around and in the lake, note down natural phenomenon and habitats and appreciate the real dimensions and volumes associated with statistics and measurements.
Cruising through an environment shaped by geological activity is the perfect entrée into subject matter themed around geography, but Ullswater ‘Steamers’ can equally apply the fact that it operates boats on England’s second largest lake, lying in the shadow of England’s third highest mountain, to the sphere of mathematics.
Children might wish to show off their creativity through the written word, as they describe their adventure, or through art. After all, the Lakes landscape inspired some of the worlds most famous poets, authors and artists, so a little of its magic must rub off on today’s generation of young, creative minds!
Ullswater ‘Steamers’ offers schools options relating to both cruising and walking and has a selection of high quality materials available for Key Stages 1-3 and above, all of which are linked to the National Curriculum.
It also provides schools with festive options such as Santa Cruises and can tailor other activities to suit the needs of the individual teacher or group. Depending on the subject matter required, it can also suggest ways of combining a cruise with a visit to another local attraction or location.
Best of all, the ‘Steamers’ understand the pressures on school budgets and can offer educational rates that suit those budgets. A teacher place is offered free with every 10 paying children and teachers will be assisted when it comes to tailoring their visit to their pupils’ needs while on board. The school coach can also park free at Glenridding and drivers can enjoy free refreshments courtesy of Ullswater ‘Steamers’.
To find out more about Ullswater ‘Steamers’s education options, contact 017684 82229 or email More information about its stunning, natural location, its historic vessels and its professional and environmentally-concerned approach to our business can be found at ENDS
Press calls: Jane Hunt, Catapult PR, 01253 891114 –
Travel trade press pack release 4 - Fun Historic Facts and Figures
Lady Dorothy built in 1967;
1 January – England's World Cup winning manager Alf Ramsey receives a knighthood and captain Bobby Moore receives an OBE in the New Year Honours.
16 January – Italy announces support for the United Kingdom's EEC membership.
6 February – Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin arrives in the UK for an eight-day visit. He meets The Queen on 9 February.
1 March – The Queen Elizabeth Hall is opened in London.
31 March – At the London Astoria, Jimi Hendrix sets fire to his guitar on stage for the first time. He is taken to hospital suffering burns to his hands.
8 April – Puppet on a String performed by Sandie Shaw (music and lyrics by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter) wins the Eurovision Song Contest for the UK.
2 May – Harold Wilson announces that the United Kingdom has decided to apply for EEC membership
Launch of the British-designed satellite Ariel 3, the first to be developed outside the United States or Soviet Union.
24 May – Royal Navy Leander-class frigate HMS Andromeda is launched at Portsmouth Dockyard, the last ship to be built there.
28 May – Sir Francis Chichester arrives in Plymouth after completing his single-handed sailing voyage around the world in his yacht, Gipsy Moth IV, in nine months and one day
1 July – The first scheduled colour television broadcasts from six transmitters covering the main population centres in England begin on BBC2 for certain programmes,[5] the first being live coverage from the Wimbledon Championships.[14] A full colour service (other than news programmes) begins on BBC2 on 2 December.
5 August – Pink Floyd releases their debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
20 September – The QE2 is launched at Southampton by Elizabeth II, using the same pair of gold scissors used by her mother and grandmother to launch the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary, respectively.
27 September – The RMS Queen Mary arrives in Southampton at the end of her last transatlantic voyage.
30 September – BBC Radio 1 is launched.
October – St Pancras railway station in London is made a Grade I listed building, regarded as a landmark in the appreciation of Victorian architecture.
7 November – Boxer Henry Cooper becomes the first to win three Lonsdale Belts outright.
18 November – Movement of animals is banned in England and Wales due to a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.
11 December – The Concorde supersonic aircraft is unveiled in Toulouse, France.
Lady Wakefield built in 1949;
January 4 – RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage.
4 April - Britain signs the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO.
Apr 20: First Badminton Horse Trials held
Manchester Mark 1 computer operable at the University of Manchester.
8 June - George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.
27 July - Maiden flight of the British-built de Havilland Comet, the world's first passenger jet, at Hatfield, Hertfordsh
Aug 29: Russians explode their first atomic bomb
30 September - The Berlin Airlift comes to an end, during which 17 American and 7 British planes had crashed delivering supplies to Soviet blockaded Berlin.
Western Belle built in 1935
1 January - Ramblers' Association founded.
7 June - Ramsay MacDonald retires; Stanley Baldwin takes over as Prime Minister.
30 July - Allen Lane founds Penguin Books to publish the first mass market paperbacks in Britain.
18 August - Last service held in Mardale church in the Lake District prior to the village's flooding to create Manchester Corporation's Haweswater Reservoir.
3 September - Malcolm Campbell sets a new land speed record of 484.620 km per hour (301.129 mph) at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, driving the Campbell-Railton Blue Bird.
6 November - Maiden flight of the RAF's Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft.
10 December - James Chadwick wins the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the neutron".
Dec 17: First flight of the Douglas DC-3 'Dakota' aircraft
Rowntree's of York produce their first Chocolate Crisp bars, which will in 1937 be renamed Kit Kat.
Raven built in 1889;
See Historic Facts – in 1895 was made a temporary royal yacht and her decks painted yellow to mark the visit of the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II to Lowther Castle, home to the yellow Earl, Lord Lonsdale.
17 February — Royal Society for the Protection of Birds founded in Manchester, originally as "The Plumage League" to campaign against the use of plumage in women's clothing
Mar 31: Eiffel Tower completed (to mark centenary of French Revolution)
6 August — The Savoy Hotel in London opens.
Jerome K. Jerome's novel Three Men in a Boat was published.
Born 16 April — Charlie Chaplin, actor and film director (died 1977)
Sep 28 - Length of a metre defined
Died 12 December — Robert Browning, poet (born 1812)
Lady of the Lake. 1877
15 March — The first Test cricket match takes place between England and Australia.[
24 March — For the only time in history, the Boat Race between the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford is declared a "dead heat" (i.e. a draw).
9 July — All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club begins its first lawn tennis tournament at Wimbledon.
Edison invents microphone and phonograph (demonstrated first sound recording on 6th Dec)
Schiaparelli observes 'canals' on Mars
24 November — Anna Sewell's novel Black Beauty published.
Group Travel Information, Facts And Figures
Sat Nav Directions
Pooley Bridge: CA10 2NNGlenridding: CA11 0US
Reaching Ullswater and the Best Pier For You!
From the North: Ullswater is located just 5 miles from Junction 40 of the M6. Follow the M6/A66/A592 and make use of the coach drop-off point at Pooley Bridge Pier.
From Keswick and the West Coast: Take the A66 and A5091 to Aira Force, before turning right on to the lake road. Glenridding is just two miles away and you can enjoy free coach parking at the Pier car park.
From the Central Lakes: Glenridding lies just 12 miles from Windermere via the spectacular Kirkstone Pass.
Driving Distances and Times to Ullswater
From Windermere 13 miles 30 minutes
From Carlisle24 miles35 minutes
From Kendal22 miles40 minutes
From Scotch Corner48 miles 1 hour and 5 minutes
From Gatehead’s Metro Centre62 miles1 hour and 35 minutes
From Chester120 miles2 hours and 15 minutes