Australian woman finds real Lake District view from painting

Sue Magarey said it was strange to visit the area she has seen depicted in a painting for 50 years

An Australian woman whose family have had a painting of a Lake District scene for generations said it was "really wonderful" to see the real view.

Sue Magarey, from Queensland, visited the spot near Elterwater after a Facebook appeal for help to locate the vista.

The artwork was bought in the 1920s to cover a crack in her great-gran's wall.

Ms Magarey, 60, said it was strange to finally see the real landscape after "50 years of looking at a painting".

The former teaching assistant said her "earliest childhood memories" were of seeing the painting in her parents' home after they inherited it.

"I always had in the back of my mind if I did visit England I'd love to go to the Lake District and see [the location]," she told BBC Radio Cumbria.

This painting of the Lake District has been in Sue Magarey's family for generations

Ms Magarey, who travelled to the Lakes after attending a conference in France, said her parents tried and failed to find the spot more than 20 years ago.

But she had assistance from people on Facebook after her friend Tania Devereux posted an appeal on a Lake District group to ask where the scene was.

"We had well over 40 responses," Ms Magarey said, adding: "It was wonderful.

"We took a stroll under the directions of all the lovely people and we did find it.

"It was really wonderful, we walked around a corner and there was this amazing view.

"It's strange to be in a real life place when you have been looking at a painting for 50 years."

The scene was captured by the artist W Mitchell in 1876

The painting was bought for 10 shillings in Gawler in South Australia in the 1920s by Ms Magarey's great-grandmother to obscure a crack in her hall wall.

It fell into a poor state of repair but was restored by Ms Magarey's parents after they found it in a shed loft.

It was painted in 1876 by W Mitchell and depicts the Langdale Valley from a spot near Harry Place Farm.

Sue said one of her five children may inherit the painting.