Kelmscott Manor

Today we joined a U3A tour of Kelmscott Manor which was organised by our friend and neighbour who volunteers there as a guide.  The Grade 1 listed farmhouse was built around 1600 and William Morris chose it as a summer retreat for his family in the 1870s when they wanted to escape from London.  He loved the house, which he described as "heaven on earth" and said it looked to him as if it had "grown up out of the soil".

The house is surrounded by beautiful gardens including barns, a dovecote and a stream, and it contains an outstanding collection of the family's possessions including furniture, original textiles, pictures, carpets and ceramics. 

The house is closed to the general public on Wednesdays so it was really good to be shown around in small groups of about ten people so that we could see everything without feeling rushed.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and we saw the house at its newly refurbished best with sunshine pouring in the windows.

This was my favourite room - one of the attic bedrooms used by May and Jenny, the daughters of William and his wife Jane.  I've always loved bedrooms at the top of a house, probably from reading 'Heidi' when I was a child!

At the end of our tour we could wander around the gardens and I spotted two green-veined white butterflies down by the stream, in extras if you're interested.