Beatrix Potter left more than 4,000 acres and 14 or 15 farms to the National Trust, with a life interest for her husband

Potter put her royalties into Hill Top Farm in 1905 and bought Troutbeck Park Farm in 1923 to keep it from developers. She died on 22 December 1943; one source puts her estate at £211,636^†. She left the National Trust more than 4,000 acres and, by different counts, 14 or 15 farms, on condition they could never be sold. Her husband, solicitor William Heelis, held a life interest. He died in 1945 and left the property to the Trust. The Trust describes the gift as over 4,000 acres, 14 working farms and 60 properties; the Beatrix Potter Society says 15 farms. One condition is that Herdwick sheep must always be able to graze on her land. The Trust holds the land in 2026.