News

Alfoxton

A new buyer for Alfoxden House

Article courtesy of 'The Observer' 16 February 2020

The dilapidated Grade II West Country home where William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge created their joint masterpiece, Lyrical Ballads, has been saved at the 11th hour.

Alfoxton Park, a building judged by some scholars to be as important to English literature as Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon, is set to be sold to a new owner this spring, in Wordsworth’s 250th anniversary year, according to the property agent handling the deal.

The substantial white house had previously operated as a hotel, but has been empty for several years. It is now expected to be run as a business, said Richard Thomas, of Christie & Co. “The owner had hoped it could become a single dwelling again, but the new buyer, a high net-worth individual, has plans to run it as a business: either a hotel or as separate lodges.”

The house was sold at auction in 2017 and was put up for sale again in November 2018 with a guide price of £2m.

Wordsworth was based in Alfoxton in the village of Holford, near Bridgwater, Somerset, for 12 months from 1797, along with his sister, Dorothy, the diarist.

There, with his admiring friend Coleridge a constant visitor, they spent one of the most productive periods in poetic history.

Among the greatest works to have sprung from their days watching the seasons pass by on the slopes of the Quantock Hills are Coleridge’s 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and 'Kubla Khan', while Wordsworth’s equally famous poem, 'Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey', inspired by his walk in the neighbouring Wye Valley, was added to the first edition of their 'Lyrical Ballads' in 1798 at the last minute.

Dorothy began her journal here in January 1798, and continued it when the siblings moved back to their native Lake District later that year.

Champions of Alfoxton include Liz Fuller of the campaign group Save, who has welcomed the “great news” about the property.

“This is a remarkable house with a rich history and clearly needs urgent help to prevent it from standing empty any longer,” she said. “It has been on the market for a while now, so this new development is encouraging.”

The house stands in 50 acres of land and looks out across the Bristol Channel to Wales. Much of it dates from 1710, when it was rebuilt after a fire. During the second world war it became home to evacuated pupils of a preparatory school in Kent and then began a new existence as a hotel in the

The academic Jonathan Bate, presenter of a radio series about Wordsworth, has also lamented Alfoxton’s fate.

“The local council have helped smooth the path to a sale, which had a lot of legal conditions, because they are aware how much the house means to the community,” said Thomas.

Fuller said that the house was added to Save’s buildings at risk register in 2016 after the organisation received a nomination from a member of the public with a personal connection. “His school was evacuated to the house during the war and this is how he could tell us that the rooms were named after poems – he remembers the 'Ancient Mariner' being one.”

Fuller believe the house has “deteriorated quite a lot and is in quite a poor condition”. “We very much hope that the prospective purchasers will bring the house back to its former beauty and find a viable use for it whether as a hotel or otherwise,” she said.

Rosemary Coleridge Middleton

Rosemary Coleridge Middleton (1940–2020)



We were very sorry to learn that Rosemary Coleridge Middleton, a Patron of the Friends of Coleridge, died unexpectedly in Taunton on 5 January aged 79. Rosemary, who was known to many of us through her attendance at Friends events, was the great-great-great-granddaughter of the poet, descending from him through Coleridge's youngest son Derwent and grandson Ernest Hartley. She was also, like her elder brother Gerard, a redoubtable defender of her famous ancestor's legacy and reputation.

Rosemary was born on 30 July 1940 and lived her early life in Esher and Thames Ditton.  She qualified as a librarian and worked at libraries in the London area, also becoming in these years part of the circle that helped and supported Professor Earl Leslie Griggs (1899-1975) in his great scholarly endeavour to edit Coleridge's collected letters. She would often speak of Griggs with great affection and respect.

Rosemary married Peter Middleton in 1974 and together they had two children, Robert and Sarah. They made their home in Axminster, Devon, where Rosemary took a full part in the life of the church and community. Anyone who visited Rosemary in Axminster will remember a house filled with vivid reminders of Coleridge  – his mahogany writing table in one corner of the room, his snuff box on the shelf, Sara's brass kettle standing by the fire and an array of china from Greta Hall displayed in a glass-fronted cabinet. There was as well the gold mourning brooch woven with Coleridge's hair, his silver spoons and a fine oil sketch of his son Hartley. Visits were made memorable not least by Rosemary's fund of Coleridge family stories, told with unstoppable enthusiasm, and by her own striking resemblance to STC.

Rosemary gave important support during the first phase of restoration work at Coleridge Cottage, led by the Friends and completed in 1998, and was a guest of honour when the completed phase two was opened by Simon Jenkins for the National Trust in 2011. She was also a lively presence at Coleridge events of many other kinds.

At her funeral in the medieval parish church at Axminster on 24 January there were many members of the wider Coleridge family, as well as representatives of the Friends and the National Trust. Readings from Coleridge, including his own epitaph, and reflections on Rosemary's life, were followed at the last by 'Thine be the glory'. It was an appropriately rousing finale for a person who seemed determined never to be sombre.

To her children, Rob and Sarah, who supported Rosemary so much in her last years, we offer our sympathy in their loss.

Tom Mayberry

Photograph: Rosemary at the opening of the Coleridge Way extension

lord byron 01

'The Byron Journal' - Essential reading for scholars and students studying the Romantic movement

BJ Online Ad for CB Nov 2019 2 copy

The Byron Journal is an international publication published twice annually by Liverpool University Press on behalf of The Byron Society, London. The journal publishes scholarly articles and notes on all aspects of Byron's writings and life, and on related topics.

Since its inception in 1973, the journal has become widely read in many different countries. Apart from providing the leading international forum for authorities on Byron and news of significant events and conferences in the Byron year, the journal also reviews all major works on the poet and prides itself on the speed with which new books are reviewed. Contributions for all parts of the journal and suggestions for review are always welcome.

To find out more about the journal please click here.

Vital Stream

Annual Wordsworth Lecture - Lucy Newlyn

The 13th Annual Wordsworth Lecture
Wednesday 20 November 2019 at 6.00pm
The University of London, Chancellor’s Hall, Senate House, Malet Street,London WC1E 7HU

Professor Lucy Newlyn:  ‘Vital Stream’– Love and Creativity in the Wordsworth Circle, 1802

1802 was an extraordinary year in the Wordsworth circle. William and Dorothy Wordsworth were writing some of their most beautiful poetry and prose, while Coleridge’s marriage was in a state of near collapse. Professor Lucy Newlyn’s new book 'Vital Stream' draws on a detailed knowledge of letters, poems, notebooks and journals to explore their thoughts and feelings about love, family bonds, friendship and creativity at this time. In this lecture, Lucy will read from her collection and describe how she has re-told a famous love story for a modern audience, in sonnet-form.

Professor Lucy Newlyn is an academic and a poet, and was Fellow and Tutor in English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford for 32 years before retiring in 2016. She now lives and writes in Cornwall (lucynewlyn.com)

The lecture is free and there is a drinks reception afterwards
To reserve a place email Hannah Stratton, Development Officer,
h.stratton@wordsworth.org.uk

IMG 0184

The 2020 Coleridge Summer Conference in the Lake District

From 27-31 July 2020 the Coleridge Conference will be held for the first time in the Lake District, in the heart of Newlands, the valley he loved for ‘the exceeding greenness & pastoral beauty of the Vale itself, with the savage wildness of the Mountains, their Coves, and long arm-shaped & elbow-shaped Ridges'.

As usual, the conference will be both intense and relaxed, as the mostly plenary sessions overspill into garden parties, poetry readings and hikes along the river, up Causey Pike or to the nearby pub and tearooms. A ropes course, volleyball and archery will be available for the more athletic Coleridgeans. Paddling and stone-skimming in the beck is also possible.

This time, our keynote speaker is Mary Favret, author of War at a Distance and Romantic Correspondence.

Our venue, Newlands Activity Centre, is viewable here: https://www.activity-centre.com/facilities/grounds

Tim Fulford

More Articles...