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The small, remote village of Kelmscott is the epitome of rural, agricultural
England. It remains undeveloped, un-suburbanised and unspoilt for two reasons.
First, it is at the end of a non-through road which peters out into the tow-path
by the Thames. Secondly, in the main, it is in three selfperpetuating
ownerships: the Church Commissioners, the National Trust and the Society of
Antiquaries of London. The latter results in most unusual and remarkable social
and economic circumstances. The total population numbering just under a hundred
is accommodated in no more than 32 dwellings of which only ten are
owner-occupied. The rest are tied, yet of these 22 five are large ‘gentlemen’s’
houses, two being owned by the National Trust, one by the Society and two by the
Church Commissioners, three of them appertaining to the surrounding farm lands.
Thus where a preponderance of residential accommodation is rented, affluence is
conspicuous by its absence and where almost all the land is in institutional
hands and so to all intents and purposes inalienable, little is readily
available for development.
The older buildings are of stone and so to say in the Cotswold style for
Kelmscott lies at the south-eastern extremity of the Cotswolds. But this setting
is totally at variance with the landscape of small hills, valleys and woodlands
stretching away to the north-west. Here the country is totally flat as far as
the eye can see and more or less devoid of woods and copses. It has nonetheless
great character and charm, even if an acquired taste, with the great unbroken
dome of heaven above.
The oldest building in the village is the parish church of St George, begun in
the late 12th century. It was enlarged thrice thereafter before about 1550 since
when it has remained virtually unaltered. William Morris, the famous poet,
artist and craftsman, who lived in Kelmscott Manor nearby made sure that the
late 19th century restoration of it was done with care and discrimination with
the result that its medieval character was not spoiled. So it stands today,
redolent of the Middle Ages. Morris himself was buried in the churchyard in 1896
under a gravestone designed by his old friend and associate Philip Webb, the
famous late Victorian architect.
The second oldest building, the aforesaid Manor, Morris’s home from 1871 to
1896, was finished in 1571. In about 1670 an elegant wing was added. Since then,
again like the church, it has remained virtually unaltered. It is open to the
public on the first Wednesdays of the months May to September and is well worth
a visit. It contains many works of Morris himself and his circle, Rossetti,
Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown and Philip Webb. The four other large houses in
the village are of the 17th and 18th centuries.
The village hall is interesting for it was built to the designs of Ernest Gimson,
though after his death. Gimson was perhaps the prime exponent of the Arts and
Crafts Movement in architecture and furniture in England. Here everything is
hand-crafted and of high quality. Again the style is the vernacular style of the
region. The hall was opened in 1934 by George Bernard Shaw, and Ramsay MacDonald
was present. The funds for the building were raised almost wholly by May Morris,
daughter of William Morris, then living in the Manor. She incidentally founded
the Kelmscott branch of the Women’s Institute, one of the earliest.
Two other buildings in the village are of historical and architectural
distinction: the Memorial Cottages and the Gimson Cottages (nos 3 and 4 Manor
Cottages); each, though single and free-standing, contains two tenements. Both
were paid for by the Morris family, the former by Jane Morris widow of William
Morris in 1902 in memory of her husband, the latter by May Morris their daughter
in 1915 in memory of her mother. The Memorial Cottages are recognisable by the
carving on the front of William Morris sitting in the Home Mead beside Kelmscott
Manor. Philip Webb was the architect. George Jack did the carving. The architect
of the Gimson Cottages was, again, Ernest Gimson, the Arts and Crafts architect.
These too are a remarkable example of building in the local vernacular style.
Their traditional character suggests much greater antiquity than 1915.
For the rest, the cottages built since the First World War by the local Council
and the Church Commissioners and the four post 1945 houses respect the local
idiom and fit into the unspoilt village scene without offence. Moreover, the
future is reasonably assured because the West Oxfordshire District Planners have
regard for the character of the place and, in co-operation with the three major
landowners, in particular the National Trust, are concerned that it remains
unviolated by unsightly development.
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