Kelmscott Manor

Kelmscott Manor
Oxfordshire
Kelmscott Manor
Location
Grid reference:	SU24929904
Location:	51°41’21"N, 1°38’22"W
History
	Country house
Information
Owned by:	The Society of Antiquaries
Website:	kelmscottmanor.org.uk

Kelmscott Manor is a limestone manor house in the Cotswold village of Kelmscott, on the north bank of the River Thames in Oxfordshire. The nearest town is Faringdon across the Thames in Berkshire.

The house dates from around 1570, with a late 17th-century wing. Its most famous resident was William Morris, the leading light of the Arts and Crafts Movement of the Victorian period and intimate of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Morris named his London home and the Kelmscott Press after the house.

The manor today is a Grade I listed building.

History 1570 to 1870

The house was built by local farmer Thomas Turner and remained in the family for many generations. After George Turner died in 1734, the house was rented out. The house was originally called Lower House, but became Kelmscott Manor when James Turner (d.1870) purchased 53½ acres of manorial land together with the lordship in 1864. After James died the manor passed to his nephew, Charles Hobbs, who let out the property.

William Morris and family

Main Entrance to Kelmscott Manor.

Kelmscott Manor.

Kelmscott Manor was the country home of the writer, designer and socialist William Morris from 1871 until his death in 1896. Today it is owned by the Society of Antiquaries of London, and is open to the public on Wednesdays and Saturdays during the summer.

Morris drew great inspiration from the unspoilt authenticity of the house's architecture and craftsmanship, and its organic relationship with its setting, especially its garden. The Manor is featured in Morris' work News from Nowhere. It also appears in the background of Water Willow, a portrait of his wife, Jane Morris, painted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1871.

After William Morris's death in 1896, the Manor continued to be occupied by his widow, Jane Morris (who purchased the freehold in 1913) and later, his daughters. May Morris died in 1938 and bequeathed the house to the University of Oxford, on the basis the contents be preserved and the public granted access. The University were unwilling to preserve the house as 'a museum piece' and passed the house and land to the Society of Antiquaries in 1962.

The internal decor today is substantially that of Morris, and includes many of his famous textile patterns as well as much of his furniture. There is a display of his textile designs in the converted loft, which would originally have been used for farm labourers. His bedroom contains many of his original books, and a collection of Dürer prints. The state of the house is much as it was left by Morris after his death.

Garden

The garden includes many old trees, including a very old black mulberry at the rear of the house. The front garden is walled with a summer house in one corner, and both the wall and the summerhouse are Grade II listed. The front garden contains many standard roses. Although part of the original orchard has been removed to make a small car park, many fruit trees have been left intact.

William Morris named his London residence — Kelmscott House — and the private press that he founded — the Kelmscott Press — after Kelmscott. He was buried in the village churchyard in a tomb designed by his friend and colleague Philip Webb.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Kelmscott Manor)

• Kelmscott Manor

References

• Crossley, Alan E.; Tom Hassall and Peter Salway (eds). (2007). William Morris's Kelmscott: Landscape and History. London: Windgather Press. ISBN 978-1-905119-13-4.