AN HISTORIC upland farm, which was donated to the National Trust by children's author Beatrix Potter will soon be split up and its buildings rented off causing consternation among the local community.

High Yewdale Farm, near Coniston, can trace its roots back to the 17th Century. It was later bought by Beatrix Potter, along with other upland farms in the area and on the writer's death in 1943, it was bequeathed to the National Trust.

Since then the Trust has rented the 160-hectare farm to tenants who have tended the 1,000-strong flock of mostly Herdwick sheep, which are the original descendants of those owned by the famous author.

But now the organisation says it will be splitting up the showpiece farm, which was visited by the Queen in 1985, when its present tenant retires later this year. The Trust says it needs to restructure farms on its land, to take account of modern agricultural reforms.

The farm's land and stock will be handed out to four neighbouring farmers and the buildings rented out either as homes or for commercial use.

NT Area Manager for the Lake District John Darlington added that High Yewdale was no longer viable in a changing farming world.

He said: "The Trust has looked long and hard at retaining High Yewdale as a farming unit. To do this would involve substantial investment, particularly in buildings needed to accommodate cattle. Such investment is difficult to justify when set against the long term requirements of farming within the surrounding area and the benefits of restructuring outlined above."

Mr Darlington added that he believed that Beatrix Potter would have been supportive of the farm being split up.

"Beatrix Potter was a staunch supporter of the hill farms of the Lake District, but her legacy changed both during her lifetime, and sub-sequently," he said. "Of the 16 farms within the Coniston and Little Langdale area bought by Beatrix Potter and the National Trust, only six survive as working farms. Beatrix Potter believed that the Lake District should not be fossilised and that it had to change and adapt," he added.

But many members of the local community have met the Trust's plans with consternation. Coniston parish councillor John Stoddard said he believed that Beatrix Potter would have been "devastated," to see the farm being split up.

"It is one of the best farms in the Lake District with some very productive land and it could be very viable. Handing the land and sheep over to farmers in the area is too much of a burden for them. They would have to employ more people and there isn't the capital these days for that," he said.

Coniston man George Birkett, who used to farm next to High Yewdale, also voiced his disapproval.

"The Queen thought it was a marvellous place when she came, it was a showpiece, I don't think the National Trust know themselves what they are doing," he said.