Works on the Manor roof valleys and gutters

Works continue to progress as well as can be expected during the Second Lockdown. Productivity is approximately 65% of what was achieved pre-Covid.  The Contractor is programming the works to prioritise which trades will have the least impact.  This has resulted in a slippage of a targeted completion of all of the Grade II Listed Barns and new Learning Space, now expected to complete on 21st December.

Christopher Neal’s conservation work placement was generously supported by the Andrew Loyd Webber Foundation and the NLHF.

We are delighted to welcome Christopher Neal to the work placement post at Kelmscott Manor, as part of the KMPPF project.  Christopher received a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Ruskin School of Art and St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford in 2020 and he will be working with our Contractor for the next six months.   He said ‘I feel like I’ve struck gold getting this chance to gain hands on experience at a historic house so closely associated with William Morris and the Arts & Crafts.  Over the next six months I will be working alongside experts in a whole range of difference trades and dealing with many complex challenges inside the Grade I Manor House. I only started two weeks ago, and I’ve already been stretched. I’ve been assisting in a number of practical problem-solving decisions to the guttering and valley repairs on the Manor’s Roof, which has given me the opportunity to put my carpentry skills to good use. I’m really looking forward to all the challenges that lie ahead.  Christopher has a copy of William Morris’s ‘Useful Work versus Useless Toil’ on his bookshelf at home. He said, ‘Reading it again, I appreciate it even more!’

William Morris’s bedroom

Works are underway inside the Manor House.  Approximately 15 (number) window repairs have been completed and internal structural floor repairs have commenced, including additional floor strengthening.

Kelmscott Manor, Marigold Room – to become Temporary Exhibition Space

Partition walls have been removed to create the temporary exhibition space, in the former Marigold Room.  It has increased in size, incorporating the former custodian’s bathroom, to enable us to display, and interpret more fully, objects drawn from the accredited collections at both Kelmscott and Burlington House.

The Kelmscott Manor collections represent the applied and decorative arts produced or collected by the Manor’s residents, William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Jane and May Morris. The collection also relates to its pre-Morris occupancy by the Turner family, with fine examples of seventeenth-century furnishings and internal decorative fixtures and fittings dating from this period. Some of the objects represent the deeply personal, while others represent the wider Arts and Crafts movement, its partnerships between designers and makers, and the intimate interaction between the residents of the Manor and its setting, from garden to wider agricultural landscape. Burlington House collections includes rare manuscripts and early printed books, as well as many beautiful and ancient artefacts that are directly relevant to Morris’s interests and passions, and which will enhance the Manor’s temporary exhibition programme.

 

HOW YOU CAN HELP.

Any donation large or small is incredibly appreciated and could make all the difference to the Kelmscott Campaign.

Donate online >

If you would like to become a ‘Companion’ (£500) or a ‘Benefactor of Kelmscott Manor’ (£5000) please contact  Dominic Wallis, Head of Development, Society of Antiquaries of London, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BE [email protected]

* Fundraising, payments and donations will be processed and administered by the National Funding Scheme (Charity No: 1149800), operating as DONATE. Texts will be charged at your standard network rate. For Terms & Conditions, see www.easydonate.org