BARONESS de Sternberg is an unusual and unlikely name to have kept cropping up around these parts, and for years the woman behind the title, a great benefactress to the Whitehaven area, remained a mystery.

Now, thanks to Ian Jones, we know who she was, where she came from and what a remarkable lady she turned out to be.

Looking around for an interesting read on some aspect of West Cumbrian history you probably wouldn’t select a book about an old mansion, now a lakeside hotel, located at Bowness on Windermere.

But Ian Jones’ story about that mansion, Belsfield, is also the story of the Baroness, otherwise known as Catharine Harrison, the lady who built it.

Catharine, who was to become Baroness in an ill-fated marriage, was a woman who at the age of 44 inherited great wealth from her godfather Joseph Steele of Trinity Square, London. Included in that inheritance was the place of his birth, a property in his Lake District homeland, Acrewalls, near Frizington.

Within a year of Dr Steele’s death the now wealthy Catharine was married to a minor Prussian nobleman, Anthony Augustus, Baron de Sternberg but it was to be a short-lived union.

Author of The Baroness of Belsfield by Windermere, Ian Jones had become interested in the Victorian history of Windermere and Bowness, having moved to the Lake District to retire. He has written several books based on his research. Belsfield mansion, which subsequently became a hotel, was built in the Italianate style for the Baroness and enjoyed magnificent views of Windermere and the Cumbrian fells.

At Belsfield ponies and carriages were kept in the stables and on fine days Catherine would have travelled over to Whitehaven to visit relatives and friends. At Acrewalls she kept a pony which she enjoyed riding in the quiet country lanes.

Before her death she became interested in the work of the Samaritans and left a legacy to establish an organisation in Whitehaven. Also during her lifetime she made generous donations to the church at Arlecdon and was a benefactor of the National School at Cleator Moor.

Her greatest gift however was to Whitehaven Infirmary which was then located in Howgill Street, where she funded a new fever wing, opened in 1857. She dedicated the men’s ward to the memory of her surgeon father Dr John Harrison and the women’s ward to her benefactor and godfather Dr Joseph Steele.

She was 67 when she died and was buried in an unmarked grave.

Ian Jones says: “This is the story of a remarkable lady, an off-comer of common but respectable birth who, by great good fortune, inherited considerable wealth, espoused an aristocratic title, and built as her principle seat one of the finest houses to grace the shores of Windermere.

“It also tells of an unconsummated liaison between two old and well respected families, Harrison and Steele, with roots in humble farming country between Cockermouth and Whitehaven.

If you are keen to learn more, Ian’s book can be obtained via cragmail@talktalk.net or from Bookends, Carlisle and Keswick, price £8.