FAQs

Your Cart

Close
Paper Plane Your order qualifies for free standard delivery
Subtotal £0.00
Delivery £0.00
Order Total £0
Checkout Securely

Beatrix Potter & William Morris

24th May 2016

“Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were–Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter. ” – Beatrix Potter

Growing up, generations of children have read these words and imagined four little rabbits and their adventures as well as characters such as Jemima Puddle- Duck. Now, 150 years after her birth, Beatrix is a character we all want to know better- imagining her sitting in her cottage, with views of the lake district, writing stories that would stand the test of time- today, all this time after her stories were written, one of her books is still sold ever 15 seconds.

A few months ago, we were lucky enough to go visit the home she loved so much- Hill Top. Growing up in London, Beatrix felt more at home on family holidays in the northern countryside, and eventually bought Hill Top with royalties she’d earned from The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It was in this house she wrote 13 of her 23 books, and where many of her famous scenes are set- so walking round the house you can really imagine Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter scampering about on their little adventures!

Growing up in what was usual of a middle class Victorian upbringing, she was mainly encased in her third floor nursery, and had little outside contact as her mother discouraged friendships with other children, claiming Beatrix and her brother Bertram would ‘catch germs.’ This allowed her imagination to grow, and her skills with art and observing nature flourished which later would help her to bring her characters to life.

Despite living a rural life full of farming with her house being described as ‘practical,’ there is a beauty about the house, every antique, piece of furniture and trinket meant something to her, the wallpaper upstairs in the bedroom is adorned with the beautiful Daisy design by William Morris- showing she truly did enjoy the finer things in life; in moderation.

We wonder if she ever met Morris himself- her father Rupert was very close to John Everett Millais, one of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood members, of whom Morris had close contact. If any of our readers know more on this, please do let us know!

If you haven’t visited the National Trust property of Beatrix Potter, and your imagination is itching to run wild- it’s well worth a visit; say hello to Peter and the gang for us!

 

Related Articles

Post Title

Thomas Woolner; one of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood founding members

If you're regular readers of our blog, you'll know that we like to do spotlight features every so often of the acquantancies of William Morris...

Post Title

Oakwood Clock, Leeds

One of the most famous landmarks of North Leeds is Oakwood Clock The clock was originally made as the centre piece for the new Leeds...

Post Title

St George’s Day

St George's Day has been celebrated for thousands of years, since 1222 on the 23rd April. The hymn Jerusalem is sung in Churches across the...

Happy first day of Spring 🌷what’s your favourite thing about spring? 🌱 Ours is of course all the stunning flowers blooming all around us 🪴 To get 15% off our website to bring some florals indoors, use code; SPRING at checkout on our website 🤍
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisdesign #morrisdesign #williammorriscollection #spring #springflorals #springflowers #flowerarrangement #flowerarranging
Our fat quarters are ideal for quilting or patchwork projects, in all our licensed William Morris designs we also sell them in bundles 🌿 Our website has 15% off everything at the moment with code; SPRING 🌷
•
•
•
#williammorris #quilting #quiltingfabric #quiltingcotton #quiltingshop #cottonfabric #cottonfabricstore #uksmallbusiness #sewersgonnasew #patchwork #sewhappy #fatquarter #fatquarterquilt
A bit of a different one today, and we’re very amateur so don’t zoom in on our planting too much, but isn’t spring lovely tidying up the greenhouse ready to plant in? 🌱 Next up is getting some tomato plants and might even take on a dahlia or two! 🤍 If you’re a gardener and know how to keep this grape vine alive, do let us know how 😂
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #pvcfabric #greenhouse #greenhousegardening #tidymygreenhouse #gardening #gardeninglove #flowergarden #greenhousegardening #mygreenhouse #springplanting #springgarden #springgardening #springgardeningtips
Celebrating International Women’s Day today 🤍 As a female founded and run business, it’s always important for us to look at the women throughout history that have been empowered and made a difference. Few have made such a difference than May Morris, not only an expert in embroidery and design, she ran the embroidery department at her father’s business, Morris & Co. She also founded the Women’s Guild of Arts as the Art Workers Guild did not admit women - like her father was a true pioneer at the time with her talent and activities to progress women’s rights - a remarkable woman indeed 🌿 We were lucky enough to see some stunning original May Morris embroideries at our friends @williammorrissocietyuk - she was a true talent 🧵🪡
•
•
•
#maymorris #maymorrisembroidery #maymorris #artist #embroidery #embroideryinstaguild #williammorris #internationalwomensday #internationalwomensday2025 #womenrun #womenrunbusiness #ukbusiness #morrisandco #florals #artsandcraftsmovement #womensguildofarts
Give us all the spring florals, we’re absolutely ready for the blooms to bloom this spring 🌷🌿 To celebrate, use code: SPRING on our website for 15% off everything (including our beautiful spring sale with exclusive colour ways and different products!) 🌱 Hope you’re all enjoying the sunshine today 🌞
Beautiful William Morris Daisy is on the table today 🌼
•
•
•
#springtime #springflowers #springflowers🌸🌺🌼🌷❤️ #floralsyourway #floralsforspring #williammorris #morris #morrismagpie #preraphaelite #daisy
Celebrating World Book day with a coffee meeting over one of our favourite books; our French archive ⚜️ Filled to the brim with beautiful designs, we might have picked a couple to be our new designs! Quilters, you’re going to want to watch this space! 🫶🏻 If anyone’s interested in how we bring a new design to life, let us know we’d be happy to film it for you! 🥰
•
•
•
#floraltablecloth #williammorris #brotherrabbit #frencharchive #quiltingfabric #printedintheuk #worldbookday #bookday #newdesign #independantbusiness #florals #sewistsofinstagram #haberdashery
A little afternoon tea set up 🧸 Using stunning Willow Bough blue, we thought this is a perfect William Morris kids afternoon tea party 🤍
•
•
•
#williammorris #willowbough #blueflorals #blueandwhite #blueandwhitehome #preraphaelite #afternoontea #teddybearspicnic #kidspartyideas #peterrabbit #peterrabbitparty
Prepping some beautiful blooms 🌷 Got to include our fabulous William Morris tea towels of course 🩷
•
•
•
#floralhome #myfloraldays #myfloraljoys #myfloralgaff #flowers #flowerstagram #williammorris #preraphaelite #williammorrisfabric #independantbusiness
Stunning Daisy is on the table 🫶🏻 Daisy was the first design William Morris produced so it’s always such a special one amongst his fans ✨
•
•
•
#floraltablecloth #placemats #placematset #daisy #williammorrisdesign #williammorris #williammorrisfabric #fabric #floralfabric #florals #floraltable
Pack a fabric stack order with us ✨ which William Morris design is your fave? 🤎
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabrics #fabric #fabricstack #fabricstash #packanorderwithme
Oh Compton we love you! 🧡 All the details within Compton are so stunning, the winding leaves and florals, did you know it was the last design Morris himself before he passed? 🤎
featuring; William Morris Compton, our licensed digitally printed design ✨
•
•
•
#compton #comptondesign #williammorrisdesign #williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisfabrics #fabrics #fabric #floralfabric #digitallyprinted #ukindependentbusiness #craftingfabric
Back in stock alert! 🐇 One of our all time favourite designs is William Morris Brother Rabbit and we’ve just digitally printed it on cotton in the red everyone has always loved so much from our licensed collection 🥰 
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabrics #fabric #brotherrabbit #brerrabbit #digitalprint #printedintheuk #preraphaelite #floraldesigner
📣 We’ve got a big announcement! 📣 We are now digitally printing our fabrics 🎉 Still printed in the United Kingdom (of course!) we always aim to bring you the highest quality, licensed William Morris designs (and exclusive florals but more on that later..) and by digitally printing them we can really focus on the details within the fabric, you can see how crisp all the aspects within the design are here: the little strawberries and the birds are so clear in the design 🍓 Printed onto high quality cotton, we’re so pleased to be able to print Morris designs displaying all the details just as he drew all those years ago 🎨 Timeless designs that when he was printing his designs in Merton Abbey Mill using the Indigo dye technique he’d never have been able to imagine the progress made that we can now digitally print them! 🤍 Strawberry Thief red is now back in stock, such a gorgeous design we adore it ♥️
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisfabrics #florals #preraphaelite #digitalprint #digitalprinting #strawberrythief
To celebrate Valentine’s Day this week, we’ve been looking through some Pre-Raphaelite love quotes including this one from Dante Gabriel Rossetti ♥️ They sure knew how to write poetry, we’ll share more of their beautiful words this week ✨
•
•
•
#dantegabrielrossetti #rossetti #preraphaelite #preraphaelites #preraphaelitebrotherhood #poetry #lovepoetry #lovequotes #valentines
Today’s tablescape feels very Valentines pretty 🤍 Beautiful Charlotte Rose is our design from our French archive, so timeless it’s on our table constantly through the year 🌹
•
•
•
#floraltablecloth #diningtable #mydiningtable #homestyling #floralhomestyling #floralhome #frenchflorals #frenchcountrystyle #printedintheuk #ukindependentbusiness #independantbusiness #valentinesflorals #valentinestable
We’re closed for holiday soon! 🪩 From the 21st Jan- 6th Feb we’ll be taking a little break, so make sure your orders are placed before then, or we will send it when we’re back ✨ since we’re treating ourselves, we thought we’d treat you too with 15% off our website with code; MORRIS - valid until we close 🤍
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisdesign #artsandcraftsmovement #artsandcrafts #preraphaelite #preraphaelites #preraphaelitebrotherhood
Merry Christmas everyone! 🎄 We hope you’ve all had a wonderful day ✨
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabrics #preraphaelite #florals #christmastable #tablescape
There’s still time to get your Christmas shopping ticked off! ✨ Free gift wrap on your orders and 10% off everything with code; festive 🎄 Just email us or message us to let us know you’d like us to gift wrap your order ☺️
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #preraphaelite #christmasgift #willowbough #floraltable #florals
Loving cutting beautiful fabric stacks this Christmas! 🎄 A fabric stack is an ideal gift for quilters and crafters in your life, they’ll be able to enjoy using them for their next project ✨
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #preraphaelite #fabricstash #fabricstack #printedintheuk #shopindependent