A campaign to crowdfund the £520,000 needed to buy the cottage on the Sussex coast where William Blake hymned ‘England’s green and pleasant land’ is due to launch next week.
Blake lived in the thatched cottage in Felpham, West Sussex, between 1800 and 1803, composing much of his epic poem Milton, and the poem which became the much-love hymn Jerusalem, beneath its “thatched roof of rusted gold” – and according to literary legend reading Paradise Lost to his wife Catherine while the pair sat naked in the garden. The property came on to the market last year for the first time since 1928, for an asking price of £650,000; the Blake Society has since negotiated a purchase price of £520,000, which it has until the 31 October to raise. There is too little time to seek the money from more traditional funding organisations, so it is turning to the public.
Intending to turn the cottage into a place which celebrates Blake, “welcomes visitors, poets, artists and scholars to continue his legacy”, and is “an exemplar of a way to live a life through courage and creativity”, the Blake Society’s campaign is backed by literary fans of the author from Philip Pullman to Stephen Fry, Alan Moore and Russell Brand.
“Since Jerusalem is sung up and down the country and known by millions, we would like to invite everyone each to give a small amount through crowdfunding, then the cottage will belong to everyone for the benefit of the nation – and the only nation is the imagination,” says the organisation. “We are inviting support from everyone who is strengthened by the knowledge that somewhere in the world such a place exists; a home for the dissenting imagination in England’s Green and Pleasant Land.”
The crowd-funding campaign will launch on 19 September. “We’re confident we will raise it … We thought if we could raise the money by asking a lot of people to give a very little, it would give us an independence. Blake is a difficult character, who tends to bite the hand that feeds him, so it’s better to have this independence. That’s why we are going down that route,” said chair of the society Tim Heath.
Once the cottage is purchased, the society intends that it will be put into a charitable trust to be held in perpetuity for the benefit of the nation.
Blake lived in the thatched cottage in Felpham, West Sussex, between 1800 and 1803, composing much of his epic poem Milton, and the poem which became the much-love hymn Jerusalem, beneath its “thatched roof of rusted gold” – and according to literary legend reading Paradise Lost to his wife Catherine while the pair sat naked in the garden. The property came on to the market last year for the first time since 1928, for an asking price of £650,000; the Blake Society has since negotiated a purchase price of £520,000, which it has until the 31 October to raise. There is too little time to seek the money from more traditional funding organisations, so it is turning to the public.
Intending to turn the cottage into a place which celebrates Blake, “welcomes visitors, poets, artists and scholars to continue his legacy”, and is “an exemplar of a way to live a life through courage and creativity”, the Blake Society’s campaign is backed by literary fans of the author from Philip Pullman to Stephen Fry, Alan Moore and Russell Brand.
“Since Jerusalem is sung up and down the country and known by millions, we would like to invite everyone each to give a small amount through crowdfunding, then the cottage will belong to everyone for the benefit of the nation – and the only nation is the imagination,” says the organisation. “We are inviting support from everyone who is strengthened by the knowledge that somewhere in the world such a place exists; a home for the dissenting imagination in England’s Green and Pleasant Land.”
The crowd-funding campaign will launch on 19 September. “We’re confident we will raise it … We thought if we could raise the money by asking a lot of people to give a very little, it would give us an independence. Blake is a difficult character, who tends to bite the hand that feeds him, so it’s better to have this independence. That’s why we are going down that route,” said chair of the society Tim Heath.
Once the cottage is purchased, the society intends that it will be put into a charitable trust to be held in perpetuity for the benefit of the nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment