Kelmscott and the Red House

Kelmscott is a house once lived in by William Morris, one of the founders of the late 19th Cent. Arts & Crafts movement.


Kelmscott House

It is a Tudor house built of local limestone near to Lechlade, Glos. It is just about 100 yards from the banks of the Thames. Morris considered it unspoilt, as though it had grown organically from the countryside.
Now, it is owned by the Society of Antiquaries, and is only open a few days in the year. It has a restaurant and a shop, and seemed to be run very informally. There were guides in each room but was not formal as the atmosphere at NT properties.

The title page of "News from Nowhere"

The rooms have many pieces made by Morris and his family.

Late in August we went over to The Red House, a house designed by William Morris and Philip Webb in Bexleyheath. It was acquired by NT in 2003 from two LCC architects who lived there for many years, as they saw the significance of the house. In Morris' time it was in countryside but London's sprawling suburbia had surrounded it.

The Red House

We had a guide who explained the conception of the house, and the furniture in each room. There were wall-paintings and stained glass by Morris' friend, Edward Burne-Jones. She asked people where they were from: most were 'locals'. The day was warm and sunny so we looked at the gardens, divided into 'rooms'. Volunteers worked there including a large vegetable area; also an apple orchard. One of the small outbuildings was an open tea room.

River Cottage HQ

In early August we went over to the Axminster/Lyme Regis area of E Devon/Dorset to visit Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's farm (Park Farm) on one of its open days. This has to be booked in advance, and is charged for! - £10. So we booked a farm B&B nearby, which was very rural - Barleyclose Farm. They had 2 twin rooms for guests; the first night we were the only ones, but on the second night there were two young ladies 'doing' the Monarch's Way - they had walked 10 miles in heavy rain that day.
Breakfast was in a sun lounge that looked out at fields and woods. Each morning there were brown cows in the field whose fence was only a few feet from the window.
On the Saturday we decided to visit Barrington Court (NT) near Ilminster, a Tudor manor house with a garden inspired by Gertrude Jekyll. In spite of the damp there were quite a few visitors but we did not see much of the gardens.

Barrington Court

The weather was much drier on Sunday so we went into Lyme. There was a lifeboat rescue display just in front of the beach, so we sat in a pleasant harbourside cafe while the rescue went on. First a lifeboat man volunteer was dropped by a large buoy to which he hung for several minutes. The lifeboat then went back 'rescue' him, but the wind & waves made this very difficult. Eventually he seemed to drop back into the sea from where he was 'rescued'. This was all a few hundred yards out, so was difficult to see.
After a good lunch in the town we drove to Park Farm. There were many cars parked in a field by the road gate. A passenger trailer towed by a tractor took us down a slope to the farm buildings. There was a helpful gardener working in a walled fruit & veg garden, and we bought an 'organic' ice-cream in a building by the farm. The farmhouse had been restored, and other new buildings constructed, so much money had been outlaid on this project. Further up we walked by a cow tethered for all of us to view (with her keeper), pigs, goats and other animals in pens. We got quite muddy feet, so were glad to finally drive home.