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9th September 2020
In the year of the staycation, are you planning a trip away within the UK? Whether a day trip or a longer stay, there is so much to do within the United Kingdom this year. We thought we’d chime in with some of our ideas for a staycation based around Morris; places he went, where he lived, his inspirations so that you can visit!
Now, the beautiful Kelmscott Manor and gardens are currently closed for conservation and improvement works through to 2021. However, you can visit the actual village. In the churchyard of the Parish Church is the tomb of William Morris which was designed by Philip Webb. A little morbid perhaps, but the church is featured in Morris’s novel, News from Nowhere, when in the final part of the book, the Guest is taken there for the feast. There’s also a pub to enjoy, The Plough Inn, and next to it are the remains of a 14th or 15th century cross. How many places can you see that kind of history!
We’ve also found a circular walk for you to enjoy! A short, 1 mile walk that starts at Kelmscott Manor and finishes at the pub, what more could you want!
Wightwick Manor is back open, but all visits must be pre-booked, so take a look at their website for more information. There’s a lovely tearoom which we’d very much encourage a visit to!
Wightwick was built by Theodore Mander and his wife Flora. Theodore and the Mander family were successful 19th-century industrialist in the area. A lecture in Wolverhampton in 1884 by Oscar Wilde on the “House Beautiful” inspired the interiors. The inspiration meant that Flora and Theodore decorated it’s interiors with the designs of Morris and his Arts and Crafts contemporaries. Wightwick self describes on the National Trust website as, “the legacy of a family’s passion for Victorian art and design.” That warrants a visit and a place on this staycation list we think!
Another National Trust property and therefore always beautiful, is Standen. Again, you need a booking before you go, so remember to plan ahead. You need to book before 3pm the day before you visit just an FYI on that from looking at the website. The Arts and Craft home has lots of beautiful Morris & Co. interiors and is a wonderful place to spend hours exploring the house and gardens.
Standen was designed by Philip Webb, Morris’s lifelong friend and colleague. So, of course, the interior is decorated with beautiful Morris & Co. works.
Lots of the way Morris thought, and the entire course of his life shifted at Oxford Exeter College. He developed an interest in Medieval architecture in particular, Oxford’s architecture remains absolutely stunning so we can see why. But, he saw Victorian industrial revolution pushing to modernise these buildings and there begun his lifelong pursuit to stop industrialisation from affecting both architecture and traditional ways of manufacture.
Oxford is always beautiful to visit, you can see why it was such a point of inspiration for Morris.
Merton Abbey was where Morris moved his textile design and printing company to from 1881 to 1888. The Abbey was on the River Wandle which made it perfect for textile printing due to the water. We’ve blogged about Merton Abbey lots, Morris showed his remarkable personality and idealism during this time. He paid his workers more than the average, supplied a library for their own education. He importantly provided a working environment that was clean, healthy and safe for his workers.
The Abbey is today actually a shopping centre. There seems to not only be independent crafting shops and a zero waste food shop but also things to do, lots of musical events and places to eat and drink. Sounds a fun place to visit on a staycation!
There’s lots of galleries within the UK that showcase both Morris’s work and also, fellow Pre-Raphaelites. The V&A’s British Galleries house decorative works by Morris and friends. However, you’d be hard pressed to find somewhere that’s more dedicated to Morris than the actual William Morris Gallery!
It was actually once called Water House and was Morris’ home as a teenager. He was also born in Walthamstow so go walk round there too if you have time!
You’ll need to book online to enter the gallery so keep that in mind and plan ahead, but inside you can find so many treasures. You can see all the gallery exhibits here so take a look through everything there is to see to plan your trip. Letters, original works, stained glass, embroidery by May, Morris’s daughter and more can all be enjoyed. There’s also a tea room and a shop, so what more could you want for a day out!
We hope you like some of our ideas for places to visit on a staycation in the UK. Many are of course down south as that’s where Morris lived, so that’s always a lovely trip away to see friends at these places for us, being from the north!
If you visit, let us know, we’d love to see pictures of your adventures!
Posted in Places we've been by Laura
We have one Golden Lily small tote in stock! ✨ Perfect for taking out and about, if everyone loves them we’ll start to make them ✂️ We have them in stock in Trellis too in small and large size, DM me for a link ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #goldenlily #floraltote #totebag
Florals florals florals ✨ These are our exclusive range of designs that we’ve restored from our French archive that dates from the late 1800s- early 1900s, would you like a sneak peak at our archive? There’s still lots of gorgeous designs in there ready to shine again! 🫶🏻
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#floral #floralprint #floralfabric #floralfabrics #smallbusiness
Gorgeous wildflowers gracing this tablescape ✨ Lily is such an underrated design by William Morris, it’s one of our favourites! 🫶🏻 we’ve got 20% off everything on our website this weekend with code; WEEKEND if you have your eye on anything, but be quick, it ends midnight tomorrow! 🤎
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#williammorris #wmorris #lily #floraltable #wildflower
Cut this gorgeous fat quarter bundle today ✂️ Can you name all the gorgeous William Morris designs? ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #fatquarter #fatquarterbundles #floralfabric
Did you know all our William Morris designs are licensed William Morris designs that we digitally print and manufacture in the UK 🇬🇧
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #floralfabric #smallbusinesssupportingsmallbusiness #quiltingfabric
Cut this gorgeous fabric stack today- can anyone name these iconic William Morris designs? ✨
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#williammorris #wmorris #quiltfabric #curtainfabric #floralfabric
Our fabric patchwork bundles, fabric bundles and remnants have been restocked on our website now! 🤎 With only a few available, hurry to get the designs you want, the bundles are great for smaller sewing and quilting bundles, what will you create? 🪡🧵
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#fabricscraps #fabricstash #williammorris #fabricseller #fabriclove
Is there anything better than fresh flowers? 🌻 Bringing sunshine and nature indoors with Merton blue on the table today 🤍
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#williammorris #wmorris #floraltable #flowerstagram #blueandwhite
In 1864, William Morris designed gorgeous Trellis- inspired by the rose trellis in the gardens of @redhousent 🌹 We’ve got a limited collection of small and large cotton tote bags that we’ve just put live on the website- the perfect accompaniment to your next day out, it’s a design that’s proved itself to be timeless, plus it’ll go with every outfit, what’s not to love! 🤍 If everyone loves our cotton totes, we could bring them out in more designs, which design would you like to see a tote in? 🌟
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#inspiredbynature_ #williammorris #trellis #garden #floraltotebag
Perfect in every colour; it’s Brother Rabbit ✨ Our licensed William Morris Forest Green colour way of Brother Rabbit now comes in tea towel form to add some timeless floral magic to your kitchen, did you know the birds and rabbits within the design were drawn by Philip Webb? 🐦⬛
Our tea towels are all printed and manufactured in the UK, and are £10.99 each 🌟
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #floral #philipwebb #floralprint
Gorgeous Mallow Forest Green in the sunshine this week ☀️ Our heavyweight fabric is so versatile with so many crafts, what will you make? 🧵
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #greenfloral #craftingfabrics
Wrap an order with us for a custom bundle of some wedding table linens 🌿 These Mallow Forest Green napkins and a custom table runner are now on their way to a customer to adorn their wedding tables, we’re so pleased to be involved in the tables of a few weddings this year! 🤍 If you are looking for gorgeous timeless William Morris florals for your tables, get in touch we’d love to discuss it with you ✨
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#williammorris #weddingtablescape #weddingtables #weddinglinens #weddingtablescape
It’s coming home! 🏴 To celebrate, take 15% off our website all weekend with code: HOME at checkout ⚽️ Hurry it ends Tuesday 🌿
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#williammorris #england #itscominghome⚽️ #britishbusiness #floralprint
The latest project, a little quilted jacket! ✨ Our William Morris Merton Blue cotton fabric is looking gorgeous, we’ll show you it when it’s finished ☺️ Remember if you’re quilting, our cotton fabric is perfect for the projects and we have lots of complimenting designs and colour ways within our range! 🪡
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#merton #quiltedjacket #quiltingfabric #quiltingfabrics #fabricstack
We’re often asked what the different weights of our fabrics are and what projects they’d be good for. These are our three different types of fabrics in our Brother Rabbit red colourway - cotton on the right, heavyweight in the middle and pvc on the left ✨ As you can see on the second photo, and as the name suggests, our heavyweight fabric has a thicker, heavier weave which makes it good for projects such as curtains and light upholstery 🪡 Our cotton fabric is perfect for quilting and projects such as dress making but honestly the amount of crafts that can be made out of them both are endless! 🫶🏻 Our pvc fabric is great to put straight on the table as it won’t fray so doesn’t need a hem and is easy to maintain as it’s wipe clean! All our fabrics are sold by the half metre and if you’d like a sample of any of our fabrics in any weight just let us know and we’ll get a free sample sent to you! 💌
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#williammorris #cottonfabric #quiltingfabric #curtainfabric #ukfabric
Our William Morris range is a gorgeous mix of colours and florals, which is your favourite? In some designs such as Strawberry Thief, Brother Rabbit, Willow Bough and Mallow we have different colour ways that we digitally print in the UK so check our website for the full range! 🫶🏻
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#williammorris #preraphaelite #quiltingfabric #fatquarters #britishbusiness
Perhaps the most famous Morris design, Strawberry Thief was registered in 1883, inspired by Morris watching the thrushes stealing strawberries from under his fruit nets at the beautiful @kelmscottmanor 🍓 It was printed using the indigo dye technique, which was labour intensive and first attempted in 1875 but not perfected for 8 years 🎨 We also print Strawberry Thief in a beautiful red 🫶🏻
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#strawberrythief #historicdesigns #britishdesign #kelmscottmanor
Gorgeous Golden Lily, designed in 1897, it’s been a timelessly popular design ever since but did you know that it really increased in popularity in the 1960s when the Beatles George Harrison wore a Golden Lily shirt? ✨
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#goldenlily #wmorris #georgeharrison #englishsummer #englishdesign
Daisy is a special one to many as it was the second ever design Morris created, in 1864, made up of repeating drawn Meadow Daisies 🌼
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#morrisandco #preraphaelite #preraphaelites #daisy #daisydesign
We print Willow Bough in this beautiful blue and also in green 🌿 First designed in 1887, it was first produced as a wallpaper design which May Morris, Williams daughter, used to decorate her bedroom before being adapted for fabric in 1895 when it was block printed in Merton Abbey 🌿
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#maymorris #mertonabbey #mertonabbeymills #willowbough
Trellis is a special design as it was the first wallpaper he designed for his company, Morris & Co. In 1864 🌿 It was inspired by the rose trellis in the garden of his stunning home @redhousent that he co designed with his friend and architect, Philip Webb
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#philipwebb #redhouse #trellis #rosetrellis
We print Mallow in a wine colourway and this beautiful forest green colour ✨ It was first printed in 1879 and used to hang in the wonderful Arts & Crafts home, @standennt in the Croxley bedroom 🫶🏻
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#a
you’ve got to make everything an event, including breakfast! 🥐
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On the table;
Willow Bough blue placemats- £38.99
Willow Bough blue napkins- £20.99 ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #willowbough #preraphaelites #floralhome
Have you seen our forest green colourways of Mallow and Brother Rabbit? 🌿 We brought them out last year and were so happy that they’re ever so popular with everyone 💚 This week we’ve also got a 10% discount running on our website with code: floralsummer 🌅
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #wmorris #williammorrisdesign #preraphaelite
Did you know all our fabrics are printed and all our products manufactured in the UK? 🤍 It’s important to us that our William Morris fabrics are all high quality and the printed colours all beautiful to ensure all his designs live on timelessly to a high standard 🇬🇧
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Products featured; our Daisy William Morris tea towel - £10.99 ✨
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#williammorris #wmorris #morris #floralteatowel #floralhome
A moment for the greens! 💚 Can you name all these beautiful green William Morris designs? 🌿 All digitally printed here in the UK 🇬🇧 The good thing seeing them all together is you can see which work together for a sewing project or quilt, or layered together for your next tablescape! 🫧
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #preraphaelites #floralfabrics
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