William Morris at Home: Kelmscott Manor

Years ago, on my first ramble along England’s Thames Path, from the source of the river near Kemble, to Oxford, I’d passed very near Kelmscott Manor and, detouring in hopes of seeing  the home of artist, designer and poet William Morris, was sorely disappointed to find it was rarely open and not on that day. Building an itinerary for this visit to the area, it was one of the first places to go onto the calendar, having made sure this time to get the timing right.

With just a week in the Cotswolds and so many places to see, there was no room for error. Every house and garden has different open days and hours from every other and driving the lanes that gets one to them is time consuming. So scheduling visits to a number of them, scattered around the countryside, some I’d waited years to see, was not unlike devising a battle plan, too important to leave to chance. And a bonus, my English friend who lives in France had plans to not only be in England while I was there, but was also thinking about visiting Kelmscott Manor. So we rendezvoused in Gloucestershire and visited the house together.

William Morris’s artistic genius was such that his designs are still in vogue today.  It isn’t surprising, for such a man, that solutions to his personal problems were no less revolutionary. I speak of the passionate attachment between his wife and his friend, the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who leased the property with Morris and lived there for 3 years, 1871 to 1874, with Jane and the Morris children. Morris divided his time between Kelmscott, especially when Rossetti was absent, and his house in London, tending to his business.

Built around 1570 with later additions, Morris loved Kelmscott Manor, was inspired by it, its gardens and the Cotswold countryside and held the lease on the property that was his retreat until his death in 1896. Jane purchased the property in 1914 just before her death and the younger Morris daughter, May, lived there until she died in 1938.

A ‘Morris’ Chair

Above, William Morris’s Bedroom
Below, Jane’s bedroom with Morris’s Willow Bough Draperies & Wallpaper

The attic and Morris girls’, Jane Alice & May’s, bedrooms

Kelmscott Manor in its Garden

Below, an interesting fence in Kelmscott Village, made with slabs of stone.

St. George’s Church, Kelmscott and the Morris Family Gravesite

Below, Portraits of Jane Burden Morris, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Kelmscott Manor is owned and managed by the
Society of Antiquaries of London.
https://www.sal.org.uk/kelmscott-manor

Morris & Company, founded in 1861, still in business.
https://www.william-morris.co.uk/

The William Morris Society, “Perpetuating the memory of one
of the greatest men of the Victorian age”: 
http://williammorrissociety.org

Also of interest, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of
Victorian artists, of which Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a founding member.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…phaelite_Brotherhood

Next week, a return to Hidcote Garden, an English national treasure.

Find all episodes of  ‘PortMoresby in England’ here,
including Morris’s Red House.