The ColourMakers House, Appleby-in-Westmorland

 The Colour Makers House is a unique heritage destination in the market town of Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria, occupying a Grade II-listed Stuart-period townhouse built in the 17th century. It is Britain's only working traditional pigment workshop, producing handmade artists' colours using pre-industrial techniques and materials sourced from the North Pennines and Lake District.

The building is both a workshop and exhibition space, a traditional colour man's shop with some very unusual gifts and a teaching studio. Visitors can observe the transformation of raw geological materials — iron-stained clays, copper-bearing stones, lead sheets buried in acid — into vivid colours for artists and decorators. Workshops and immersive retreats offer hands-on experience of this ancient craft, from an hour-long demonstration to multi-day retreats combining pigment-making with visits to the region's extraordinary heritage sites.

Appleby-in-Westmorland lies in the Eden Valley, between the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty to the east and the Lake District National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) to the west. The Jurassic Coast UNESCO World Heritage Site lies to the south. This position at the intersection of two major protected landscapes gives the region an exceptional concentration of geological and industrial heritage, from Roman iron workings to Victorian lead mines, copper-stained Lakeland valleys to sandstone quarries yielding natural ochres.

The town itself retains much of its medieval character, with its castle, parish church, market place and cloisters largely intact. The Colour Makers House sits within this historic fabric, its stone walls and 17th-century proportions an entirely appropriate setting for the pre-industrial craft practised within.