Kelmscott

A busy day today, I'm sorry I am behind with commenting.

This afternoon we went on a Decorative Arts Society trip to Kelmscott in Oxfordshire. It's a Tudor farmhouse that William Morris fell in love with in 1871.  He rented it for the rest of his life as a place to escape from the pressures of London.

After his death in 1896, his wife Jane continued to rent it and then bought it shortly before her death in 1914 to provide some security for their daughter May.

May left the house to Oxford University on her death in 1938.  OU did not appear to want it or know what to do with it and it fell into disrepair.  Eventually it became the property of the Society of Antiquaries of London who, with the help of a generous bequest, restored it to the family home that the Morris's had known. 

The decorations are mostly by Morris & Co, and the furniture is a mixture of original Jacobean furniture plus furniture commissioned by Morris from Philip Webb plus some furniture from the Red House plus some furniture that Rossetti left behind when he left Kelmscott.

It is still a perfectly unspoiled and beautiful place that time passed by, and well worth a trip.