| | THE BLAKE COTTAGE TRUST News from Blake's Cottage Preserving the Home of Britain's Most Visionary Poet, Printer and Painter AUGUST 2026 |
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“To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower” William Blake, Auguries of Innocence |
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BlakeFest 200 Arrives It's official: the countdown to Blake's bicentenary next year now has a name and a calendar. Our Project Coordinator Sarah Parker and long-time cottage supporter Rachel Searle have joined forces to bring Rachel's existing BlakeFest events together with others in Bognor, Felpham, Chichester and London — together under one banner: BlakeFest 200, running under the #Blake200 hashtag. The programme opens in London on 12 August — the anniversary of Blake's death — with an event hosted by the Blake Society at St Bartholomew's. Sussex then takes centre stage from 17 to 31 August, including a special weekend of events at Hotham Park, Bognor Regis, on 20–22 August, with further events planned into early September. Sarah and Rachel are also developing a joint Arts Council application to support the programme, and every event is being planned with full disability access. It's the biggest and most joined-up celebration of Blake's Felpham years that Sussex has seen — please join us and help us spread the word. Full listings and booking details will follow on blakecottage.org and our social channels as each event is confirmed. |
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Our First Heritage Open Day — 15 September We're delighted to announce that Blake's Cottage will take part in this year's national Heritage Open Days festival on 15 September, led by our Ambassador Nick Tyson. It's a rare chance to see behind the scenes of the restoration and hear directly from the team doing the work — please put the date in your diary and help us spread the word. |
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In the Ground: Archaeology, Garden Design — and 200 Young Designers There's been real movement on the garden and the fabric of the cottage this summer. Nick Tyson, who is a conservation archaeologist, and his assistant have been on site investigating the cottage's north wall and have already turned up some fascinating discoveries — a full write-up is on its way. On the garden itself, San Francisco-based landscape architect Hugo Larman has visited, measured up, and is now developing design options in collaboration with our heritage garden specialists. Our working group has been planning how to present the cottage and garden to the public in 2027, the bicentenary of William Blake's death. The conclusion — we shouldn't wait for perfection until full restoration is complete: there is strong public appetite simply to see the story of the rebirth of the cottage and garden unfolding, and we intend to let people watch it take shape. Meanwhile, one of the loveliest results of the year: our children's garden design competition, run with local primary schools, produced around 200 submissions. It's a wonderful reminder of how deeply Blake's imagination still resonates with the youngest members of our community — our thanks to every school, teacher and pupil who took part. Here are the 12 finalists. |
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The winners will be announced at the start of the new school year in September. It’s one of the many projects and initiatives that have been made possible by funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Alongside this hands-on work, we've been having very encouraging conversations about the fabric of the cottage, future funding and the project's future potential with a range of specialist support and funding agencies. More news on this as it develops. |
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A Summer of Remarkable Visits The cottage has welcomed an extraordinary run of visitors over the last few months. On 10 July we marked the centenary of the American poet Allen Ginsberg, who was much influenced by Blake, with around twenty guests — poets, musicians, composers and artists, including a Ginsberg biographer with deep beat-generation connections. Our Chair, Doug Nicholls, gave a tour and a short fundraising pitch, the video of his Blake Society talk was also shown, and the afternoon carried on with lunch at The Fox, the pub just across the street from the cottage which was there in Blake's day. Doug, Ambassador Liz Thiel and Sarah Parker spent a fascinating afternoon with Barry Smith of the South Downs Poetry Festival at the West Sussex Records Office, examining original documents from Blake's 1804 sedition trial at Chichester Guildhall — a powerful reminder of how much rich material still survives in the archives, waiting to inform how we tell his story. |
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A particular highlight was the visit of Jenny Tonovich from New York's Morgan Library, who is preparing the Morgan's major Blake exhibition opening next year. The accompanying book — largely the work of Jenny’s colleague Sheelagh Bevan — is genuinely excellent, and includes an introduction by Iain Sinclair that references the cottage extensively. It's a wonderful sign of how central Felpham is becoming to the wider story of Blake's life and work. In early July we were delighted to have a visit from The Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller. The number of highly esteemed artists coming to the cottage is a real testament to Blake's continuing influence and importance in the nation's cultural life. We were also pleased to welcome a visit from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and look forward to a planned visit from the Cowdray Heritage Trust in the coming weeks — both organisations whose expertise and support mean a great deal as we plan the cottage's conservation. Other guests this summer have included Charlie Chaplin's youngest son, an artist and composer in his own right; and, visiting from the United States, Professor Amy Weldon, Head of English at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa and Dr Thomas Ward, another US based scholar, both of whom have expressed enthusiasm about becoming Trust ambassadors. We were also delighted to welcome Jacky King — a board member of the World Monuments Fund and client manager and PR at Sotheby's — and her husband Guy, who is keen to help the Trust going forward. On the fundraising side, our Patron, Bruce Dickinson's support for the bicentenary continues to develop: he plans to sign a limited run of 1,000 copies of the art-work from his album The Chemical Wedding in aid of the Trust, and discussions continue around a Blake-themed concert next autumn. |
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New Friends, Closer to Home Delia Ryan, a lifelong Blake admirer and senior manager at Amazon's Bognor site — responsible for staff wellbeing and Amazon's volunteering impact in the community — paid us a visit that she described as genuinely emotional. She's keen to become an ambassador for the Trust and to bring groups of Amazon volunteers to help with projects at the cottage. It's exactly the kind of local, practical support that will help us get the cottage ready for visitors. We're also delighted that Elisabetta Coccia and Jim Mearns have both taken on significant local roles supporting the Trust's work - working with schools and helping with our finance and accounts respectively . Their growing involvement is already making a real difference, and we're enormously grateful to them. There have also been positive conversations with St Mary's Centre and Church and the Friends of Felpham about parking for visitors to the cottage — exactly the kind of collaborative, neighbourly planning that will help us welcome people well once the doors open. And a nod to our neighbours: The Fox in Felpham, mentioned above — already crowned CAMRA's Western Sussex Pub of the Year — has now gone one better, taking the county title and being named Sussex Pub of the Year. Congratulations to everyone there; it's a lovely piece of good news for the village that has hosted so many of our own gatherings. |
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Governance, Giving — and a Warm Welcome to American Friends At its July meeting, the Board unanimously approved the Trust's Annual Report and Accounts, now submitted to the Charity Commission and Companies House — an important milestone of good governance as the project grows. For our American supporters, the new giving system is now confirmed up and running, making it simpler than ever for US-based friends of the Trust to give. The details are on the link here → Tax efficient giving for US based supporters If you know someone in the US who has been waiting for an easy way to support the cottage, now is a great time to point them our way. Our Crowdfunder is also now live and gathering its first donations — every gift, large or small, helps keep the momentum going. You can donate via our Crowdfunder here: You can back our Crowdfunder here → Save & Restore William Blake's Cottage We've also joined a number of specialist bodies whose expertise strengthens our work: Voluntary Action Arundel & Chichester, the Heritage Network, and the Association of Cultural Enterprise (ACE). Each connects us to wider networks of practical support as the project grows. |
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BlakeFest 200: Save the Dates 12 August: London — BlakeFest 200 opens on the anniversary of Blake's death, with an event hosted by the Blake Society at St Bartholomew's. 17–31 August: Sussex — BlakeFest 200 events across Bognor, Felpham and Chichester. 20–22 August: Hotham Park, Bognor Regis — a special BlakeFest 200 weekend. Early September: Further BlakeFest 200 events — details to follow. 15 September: Blake's Cottage — our first Heritage Open Day, led by our Ambassador and conservation archaeologist Nick Tyson. Full details, venues and booking links will be published on blakecottage.org and shared here as soon as they're confirmed — please hold the dates and help us make these events a huge success. |
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Blake’s vision — of imagination, justice and the transforming power of art — lives on in this small cottage in Felpham. Help us carry it forward. Make a Donation → Support us through JustGiving Back our Crowdfunder → Save & Restore William Blake's Cottage The Blake Cottage Trust Registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales · Charity number: 1160716 |
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