The Jemima Puddle Duck Easter Egg Hunt

The Lake District will play host to the North of England’s biggest Easter Egg Hunt in 2008 to celebrate Jemima Puddle-duck’s centenary year. Children and adults will be able to join the search for Jemima’s eggs across Cumbria from Wednesday 19th March 2008.

Most Easter egg hunts take place in just one location, but this one will cover an area of more than 6,800 square kilometres (2,600 square miles). So thousands of people will be able to take part in this extraordinary event.

Each of the 100 eggs in The Jemima Puddle-duck Easter Egg Hunt will lead to prizes such as weekend breaks in the Lakes, special collectors’ editions of The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck and Beatrix Potter gifts. The eggs will be specially designed by a local artist and will themselves be collector’s items.

The event will be launched from The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction in Bowness-on-Windermere. A large screen at the attraction will show the general location of each of the eggs and whether or not they have been found. People will also be able to find out about these locations on a special competition website, which will be launched just before Easter.

“An Easter Egg Hunt is obviously an ideal way to celebrate Jemima Puddle-duck’s centenary year” says General Manager, Richard Foster. “She is by far the most popular character at the attraction, after Peter Rabbit. She is also a real Lake District character, created by Beatrix Potter once she had fallen in love with the farmyard and countryside of her home in the Lakes.”

The eggs will all be put in fairly prominent positions across the length and breadth of the county, from Hadrian’s Wall in the north to Morecambe Bay in the south and from the town of Alston in the east to Cumbria’s west coast. So there will be no need for anyone to do any digging or to move anything to find them! Those taking part simply need to keep a careful lookout for the brightly coloured eggs.

Each egg will contain a number which is the key to one of the prizes. The finder simply has to enter the number on the competition website to find out what they have won. People all over the country will also be able to follow the progress of the Easter Egg Hunt by logging on to the website.

The Jemima Puddle-duck Easter Egg Hunt is being organised by The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction, Cumbria Tourism and Frederick Warne, publisher of the Beatrix Potter books.

Sheona Southern, Marketing Director at Cumbria Tourism, says: “The Jemima Puddle-duck Easter Egg Hunt looks set to be a unique event that will appeal to and involve people of all ages, and stretch to every part of Cumbria, no matter how remote. It is an ideal opportunity for families to visit areas that they haven’t explored before to search for eggs and, at the same time appreciate the stunning Lake District scenery that so inspired Beatrix Potter to write Jemima’s tale.

“We are pleased to be a part of Jemima’s centenary celebrations, and we are sure that this event will continue to build upon the huge success and recognition that the release of the film, Miss Potter achieved for the Lake District over this last year.”

The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck is one of Beatrix Potter’s most popular children’s books and tells the story of the silly duck’s efforts to find somewhere to lay her eggs. The story is set in the heart of the Lake District, around the farmyard of Hill Top, the home Beatrix Potter bought in the village of Near Sawrey in 1905.

The competition website - Golakes.co.uk/jemima - will be available in February.