Beckfoot is the home of the Blacketts (Nancy, Peggy, Mrs Blackett and - sometimes - Captain Flint). It is located on the banks of the Amazon River where it flows into the Lake on the western shore near the northern end, and at the foot of a beck which flows down past The Dog's Home.

The Beckfoot boathouse in the Amazon River is where Amazon is usually moored. Also moored in the boathouse are a motor launch and a rowing boat (or a rowing skiff). The boathouse is of stone, with a huge white Skull and Crossbones over the front and a wooden stage along one wall (SA11,19).

Beckfoot has a pigeon loft located above the stables. In The Picts and the Martyrs there is a new addition to the house (a present from Captain Flint); a trellis work up one side for climbing roses, which Nancy uses as a ladder. In Pigeon Post the house is initially full of paperers and painters and plasterers carrying out general redecoration, except for Captain Flint's study.

There is a large lawn, which goes down to the Amazon River, where the D's put the GA ashore, and then go to the Look-out post above the lawn (PM30). Afterwards the lawn looked like a football field after the players have all gone home. It is sometimes a little overgrown with daisies, unless Great Aunt Maria is at hand to oversee the mowing.

StaffEdit

Usually there is one servant at Beckfoot, Cooky (M. Braithwaite); it is not stated whether she lives there or elsewhere.

In (SD27) Nancy mentions the housemaid dancing in the kitchen when the GA leaves.

Old Carrotty, the porter at the railway station at the Foot of the lake for at least three or four years (PM25) used to work at Beckfoot years ago

LayoutEdit

Scholars of the Arthur Ransome Club have carefully studied the design of Beckfoot in the Beckfoot Reconstruction Project.

The Tarboard has been a lively forum for duiscussing Beckfoot's indoor plumbing.

The original Beckfoot?Edit

Of all the locations in the Swallows and Amazons series, Beckfoot is perhaps the one where there is the least consensus. Some (including Christina Hardyment [1]) have concluded that the original Beckfoot was Lanehead, home of W.G. Collingwood. Others have suggested Huyton Hill near Windermere, and also Belle Grange near Windermere amongst a number of other houses.