After an international campaign, the Cottage was successfully purchased and put into trust for the nation and all lovers of Blake across the world. We are now planning the next stage – the renovation and restoration of the Cottage.
William Blake (poet, artist and visionary 1757-1827) and his wife Catherine lived in the Cottage in the village of Felpham in West Sussex between 1800 and 1803. The Cottage is one of only two houses to survive of the nine residences that Blake occupied during his lifetime. It was here that he wrote the words to the hymn Jerusalem, was where he was accused of treason, and the 3 year sojourn in the Cottage marked the beginning of the most important period in Blake’s creative life.
We would greatly value your support to renovate the Cottage so that is might become a place where visitors may dream dreams and visionaries re-imagine the world. But first we must repair the roof.
Our first task is to replace the thatch – Blake’s ‘roof of rusted gold’.
