Corner of Rudyard Lake - early 1900's
Rudyard lake was an extremely popular tourist attraction at the turn of the last century, and as such became known as the "Blackpool of the Potteries".

Rudyard Kipling, the famous author, was named after Rudyard Lake.
Rudyard lake is an artificial reservoir two miles long and a quarter of a mile wide built in 1831 to feed the Macclesfield canal. Rudyard Kipling was named after the lake as a result of his parents meeting there in 1863.

Rudyard is a small village which is between Stoke-on-Trent and the moorlands town of Leek and is probably most famous for giving its name to Rudyard Kipling. Kipling’s parents fell in love with Rudyard so much during their courtship that they decided to name their son Rudyard.

Boats in the early morning mist

photo: Tony Smith 1998

Boathouse on the lake

Kipling's father, John Lockwood Kipling, was an artist and scholar who had considerable influence on his son's work, became curator of the Lahore museum, and is described presiding over this “wonder house” in the first chapter of Kim, Rudyard's most famous novel. His mother was Alice Macdonald, two of whose sisters married the highly successful 19th-century painters Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Sir Edward Poynter, while a third married Alfred Baldwin and became the mother of Stanley Baldwin, later prime minister. These connections were of lifelong importance to Kipling.

John Lockwood Kipling was involved in the decoration of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; He cam to the Potteries to work for the potter Pinder Bourne in Burslem. In 1863 he and Robert Edgar were awarded joint first prize in the competition for the design of the facade and elevation of the Wedgwood Memorial Institute in Burslem.

One of the terra-cotta panels from the Wedgwood Institute in Burslem - designed by Rudyard Kipling's father

Rudyard itself gets its name from Ralph Rudyard who is reputed to have slain Richard III at Bosworth.

There are many attractions to see while visiting Rudyard, the lake (reservoir) which feeds the local canal system is 2.5 miles long, it has sailing and rowing boats for hire or you can steam up the lake in a rather antiquated steamboat, there is also some excellent fishing. A narrow gauge steam railway with 1.3 miles of track runs from the car park along the side of the lake as far as Hunthouse wood, there are intermediate stops allowing you to alight and explore the area before catching a return train. Many interesting walks exist around Rudyard and with two local hostelries no one need go home hungry or thirsty.

train at Rudyard Lake
| Railway Web Site |

Kipling, Rudyard

born Dec. 30, 1865, Bombay, India
died Jan. 18, 1936, London, Eng.

in full Joseph Rudyard Kipling English short-story writer, poet, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, his tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.
Born in Bombay, British India, on December 30th 1865, Rudyard Kipling was the first born child of John Lockwood Kipling and Alice Kipling, who had settled in India earlier that year.
His father was a professor of architectural sculpture; on his mother’s side there was a brace of distinguished Aunts and Uncles for the boy. One Aunt was the mother of Stanley Baldwin, future Prime Minister; another was married to Sir Edward Burne-Jones, the distinguished Pre-Raphelite Painter. Kipling’s parents considered themselves ‘Anglo-Indians’, and so too would their son, though he in fact spent the bulk of his life elsewhere. Complex issues of identity and national allegiance would become prominent features in his fiction.