Grasmere Gingerbread brings its Victorian recipe, ice cream and coffee to Hawkshead

Few Lake District treats carry quite as much history as Grasmere Gingerbread. The recipe dates back to 1854, when Victorian cook Sarah Nelson perfected the spicy, chewy bake that still carries her village's name today.

Sarah sold her gingerbread from Church Cottage in Grasmere, which served as her home, bakehouse and shop. The building itself is older still: Visit Lake District notes that it was built in 1630 as the village school. Accounts of the early days describe her selling from a tree stump outside the door, a scene that has become part of Lakeland folklore.

More than 170 years later, the little shop by the churchyard remains a place of pilgrimage for visitors, and the queue outside is part of the experience. In 2024 the business marked its 170th anniversary, a milestone few food producers anywhere can claim.

The business has also looked beyond Grasmere. In June 2023 it opened a second shop on Main Street in Hawkshead, roughly nine miles away, bringing the famous gingerbread to another of the Lake District's best-loved villages. The shop has since celebrated its second birthday.

Hawkshead offers a few things the original does not. Takeaway coffee is made with beans roasted by Duffins Coffee in Staveley, which also provided barista training for the team. There is Grasmere Gingerbread ice cream too, made with Jersey milk and pieces of the gingerbread itself, served in a cone, a tub or as an affogato with a shot of espresso poured over the top.

Inside, shelves hold more than 100 ginger-flavoured foods and ginger-themed presents, from gift boxes to hampers, and in the colder months, from November to March, the shop serves hot ginger wine, a welcome warmer after a walk around Esthwaite Water.

What makes the story special is continuity. The gingerbread still carries Sarah Nelson's name and story, and the business has grown carefully, adding a second shop and new ways to enjoy the flavour without losing the character that has drawn people to Grasmere for generations.

The original shop sits beside St Oswald's churchyard in Grasmere, and the Hawkshead shop is on Main Street. Both are easy to include in a day out, and the full range, including gift hampers, can also be ordered through the Grasmere Gingerbread website.