Kelmscott Manor

History

The manor dates from around 1570, with a wing added in the late seventeenth century, and is listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for England. William Morris took on the house as a country retreat in 1871 and kept it until his death in 1896. Jane Morris purchased the property in 1913, shortly before her own death the following year. Their daughter May Morris lived there for much of her later life, and on her death in 1938 bequeathed the house to the University of Oxford. The Society of Antiquaries of London acquired it subsequently and has cared for it since.

Architecture

Built in Cotswold limestone, the manor combines an Elizabethan core of around 1570 with a later seventeenth-century wing, giving it the informal, organic profile that Morris himself admired.

Worth knowing

William Morris, the Victorian designer, poet and founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement, considered Kelmscott the most unspoiled house he knew, saying it looked as though it had grown up out of the soil. His daughter May Morris, an embroiderer and editor of his collected works, spent much of her adult life there.

Gardens & grounds

The grounds include a meadow, a dovecote and a stream running down to the Thames Path, and were a lasting source of inspiration for Morris's textile designs.