Nibthwaite is a small village at the foot of Coniston Water, on the eastern side of the southern tip of the lake. It is in the South Lakeland District in the county of Cumbria.
The Ransome family used to holiday there in the 1880s and 1890s. From their home in Headingley in smoky Leeds, they travelled by train and cart to stay at the farm of the Swainson family. Arthur Ransome used to dip his hands in the lake when he arrived. The family picnicked on Peel Island, where they met the Collingwood family when Arthur was 12. They fished for minnows or perch, and their father fished for trout. Arthur first ascended Coniston Old Man as an infant on his father’s back.
Later he incorporated local places and customs into the five of his Swallows and Amazons series of children’s books set in the Lake District, around a lake based on both Coniston Water and Windermere.
In W. G. Collingwood’s 1895 historical novel, Thorstein of the Mere about the coming of the Northmen to the Lake District, the descendants of Thorstein settle at Nibthwaite.
Christina Hardyment visited Brigit Sanders who was living with her husband John at Nibthwaite when she was researching Arthur Ransome and Capt. Flint's Trunk