THE reopening of Dove Cottage and Museum to take centre stage amongst year-long Reimagining Wordsworth celebrations.
Reimagining Wordsworth, a yearlong celebration of the poet’s 250th birthday, will celebrate his relevance today and encourage a greater appreciation for his work than ever before.
Dove Cottage, the world-famous home of William and Dorothy Wordsworth will reopen on 7 April 2020, the official anniversary of his birth, and will be followed in the summer by the reopening of the Museum. The project will mark the completion of a major capital project to transform the visitor experience across the hamlet of Town End, home to Dove Cottage and immortalised by the poet as ‘the loveliest spot that man hath ever found’.
The £6.2m transformation, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, employs world-leading specialists in the fields of architecture, heritage, conservation and interpretation to preserve the historic site and present a more authentic visitor experience. It will create new and improved opportunities to learn and connect with the poet’s work, life, ideas and philosophies, and strengthen the connection between his work and the Lake District landscape that inspired it.
Reimagining Wordsworth will see the Wordsworth Trust work with exhibition designers, graphic designers and interpretation specialists Nissen Richards Studio to launch the Trust’s new brand, ‘Wordsworth Grasmere’. Celebrating the intrinsic link between the people, poetry and place, it will incorporate imagery and patterns in water and ink to reflect the act of writing and give a sense of the surrounding landscape. The colour palette will represent nature and the muted interiors of Dove Cottage and the new logo will take inspiration from Wordsworth’s passion for typesetting and print, using a specific typeface that he requested for the printed editions of his work.
Nissen Richards Studio will work closely with project architects Purcell, who are sensitively preserving, restoring and updating buildings and the surrounding landscape. Creating a more accessible and exciting experience, their work will reconnect the enduring relationship between Wordsworth’s work and nature.
Spring 2020
To coincide with Wordsworth’s birthday celebrations in spring, Dove Cottage will reopen after an authentic restoration and the visitor experience will be transformed with newly animated spaces around the poet’s much-loved Lake District home. This will include:
- the restoration of the cottage’s interiors, enabling visitors to step back in time to get a feeling of daily life as the Wordsworth’s would have known in 1800 and experience a humble home where extraordinary writing and thinking took place
- a celebration of Wordsworth’s famous poetry and Dorothy’s fascinating Grasmere Journal, with a facsimile of the journal placed on display to celebrate the anniversary
- the recreation of Wordsworth’s lovingly maintained Dove Cottage orchard garden and a new community sensory garden incorporating local plants and encouraging visitors to ‘be Wordsworthian’, slow down and observe nature
- a new learning space bringing poetry to people of all ages and backgrounds through a programme of year-round events and workshops. The programme will celebrate the relationship between Wordsworth’s work and the landscape which inspired him.
- the introduction of sound points throughout the hamlet bringing Wordsworth’s story to life through the voices of local residents
- the recreation of Wordsworth’s moss hut, originally built as a sanctuary for creativity in the Dove Cottage garden, and an invitation to local and global lovers of the his work to recreate their own
- a woodland space and new walking trails to mark the intrinsic link between Wordsworth’s writing and local landscape
- a new visitor route, courtyard and café focused on the heart of the site
Summer 2020
Further ahead, summer 2020 will see the reopening of the Museum in time for the summer holidays. Developments will include:
- the expansion and modernisation of the museum to display a unique and internationally significant collection of Wordsworth’s manuscripts, books and fine art
- the addition of new galleries exploring Wordsworth’s life, writing and ideas, and a new special exhibition space opening with a brand new exhibition to be announced in 2020
- new interpretations of Wordsworth’s manuscripts offering visitors more interactive ways to engage with his work
- pause spaces and a new rooftop viewing station offering visitors opportunities to stop and reflect on the stunning Grasmere landscape that inspired Wordsworth’s work
- the inclusion of contemporary voices, including individuals, academics and Dove Cottage Young Poets, celebrating the modern-day relevance of Wordsworth’s poetry to give visitors a closer insight into his ideas and process of composition
Reimagining Wordsworth is supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund with a grant of £4.1 million. The grant was awarded after a successful campaign to secure over £1 million in match funding. Major funders include the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Northern Powerhouse through Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership the Wolfson Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Linbury Trust, the Foyle Foundation and South Lakeland District Council. Further grants and donations were received from visitors to Dove Cottage, supporters across the UK and internationally, and numerous charitable trusts and foundations.
F. Parkinson Ltd was appointed as contractor in 2019 to carry out the restorations and other building work. Based in Blackpool, Parkinson’s have extensive experience of working with heritage organisations and on historic buildings, and where possible they are employing local subcontractors who are used to working with the materials that help give the site its special character.
Michael McGregor, Director of the Wordsworth Trust, says: “We are excited to welcome visitors to Wordsworth Grasmere in 2020 to celebrate the 250th birthday of one of our greatest poets. Inspired by Wordsworth’s own wish that his poetry ‘live and do good’, Reimagining Wordsworth will also celebrate the enduring significance and relevance of the poet in fresh and exciting ways.
“We look forward to welcoming diverse audiences from across the world to Wordsworth Grasmere to experience, in Wordsworth’s words, ‘The one sensation that is here’.”
