Blackwell is a large house in the English
Lake District
The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...
, designed in the
Arts and Crafts
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...
style by
Baillie Scott
Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott (23 October 1865 – 10 February 1945) was a British architect and artist. Through his long career, he designed in a variety of styles, including a style derived from the Tudor, an Arts and Crafts style reminisc ...
. It was built in 1898–1900, as a holiday home for
Sir Edward Holt, a wealthy
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
brewer. It is near the town of
Bowness-on-Windermere
Bowness-on-Windermere is a town in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England. It lies next to Windermere lake and the town of Windermere to the north east with which it forms the civil parish of Windermere and Bowness. The town was histor ...
with views looking over
Windermere
Windermere (sometimes tautology (language), tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere, Cumbria (town), Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in leng ...
and across to the
Coniston Fells
Coniston may refer to:
Australia
*Coniston (Northern Territory), a cattle station
**Coniston massacre, 1928
*Coniston, New South Wales
** Coniston railway station, New South Wales
* Coniston, Tasmania, a town in the Derwent Valley
United Kingdo ...
.
Blackwell has survived with almost all its original decorative features intact, and is listed
Grade I
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
as an outstanding example of British domestic architecture. The house is furnished with original furniture and objects from the period. The gardens were designed by
Thomas Mawson in a series of terraces. Flowers and herbs border the terraces, which form sun traps on the south side of the house.
The house has been open to visitors since 2001 and hosts regular exhibitions including work by living artists such as
Edmund de Waal
Edmund Arthur Lowndes de Waal, (born 10 September 1964) is a contemporary English artist, master potter and author. He is known for his large-scale installations of porcelain vessels often created in response to collections and archives or th ...
in 2005.
It won the Small Visitor Attraction Award in the Northwest of England for 2005. The house is managed by the
Lakeland Arts Trust.
Description of house and contents
When the architect MH Baillie Scott built a holiday home overlooking Windermere for his client Sir Edward Holt he created Blackwell, a perfect example of the Arts and Crafts movement.
Blackwell retains many of its original decorative features, including a rare Hessian wall-hanging in the dining room, leaf-shaped door handles, curious window catches, distinctive plasterwork, stained glass and carved wooden panelling by Simpsons of Kendal. The rooms contain furniture and objects by many of the leading Arts and Crafts designers and studios – metalwork by WAS Benson, ceramics by Pilkingtons, and
Ruskin Pottery
The Ruskin Pottery was an English art pottery studio founded in 1898 by Edward R. Taylor, the first principal of both the Lincoln School of Art and the Birmingham School of Art, to be run by his son, William Howson Taylor, formerly a student t ...
and furniture by
Morris & Co.,
Stanley Webb Davies
Stanley Webb Davies (1894–1978) was one of Great Britain's premier makers of Arts and Crafts furniture from his workshop in Windermere in the Lake District.
Stanley was born in Darwen, Lancashire, into a wealthy mill-owning family of Quakers. ...
,
Ernest Gimson and Baillie Scott himself.
Acquisitions of furniture by Baillie Scott are on display, including an oak and ebony inlaid barrel chair with slatted sides, sideboard and a set of dining chairs. Blackwell offers several rooms displaying historical exhibitions that explore different aspects of the Arts and Crafts movement.
The original gardens were laid out by Arts and Crafts garden designer Thomas Mawson in a series of terraces to achieve views from the house over the lake towards the Coniston fells. Blackwell is bordered by flower beds set against a terrace of York stone paving, providing shelter for garden chairs and tables, surrounded by flowers and herbs. On the lower terrace there is a long sweep of lawn.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Windermere, Cumbria (town)
Windermere is a civil parish in the South Lakeland District of Cumbria, England. It contains 82 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, four are listed at Grade I, the highest of the three gra ...
*
Broad Leys
Broad Leys is a house located in Ghyll Head, near Bowness-on-Windermere, South Lakeland, Cumbria, England. It is in the northern part of the parish of Cartmel Fell.
It was constructed in 1898 by Charles Voysey for Arthur Currer Briggs and mi ...
, Arts and Crafts house on Windermere
*
List of historic houses in England
This is intended to be as full a list as possible of country houses, castles, palaces, other stately homes, and manor houses in the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands; any architecturally notable building which has served as a residence for ...
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huyton_College
External links
Blackwell House Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackwell (Historic House)
Arts and Crafts Architecture
Gardens in Cumbria
Gardens by Thomas Hayton Mawson
Country houses in Cumbria
Historic house museums in Cumbria
Art museums and galleries in Cumbria
Contemporary crafts museums
Grade I listed houses in Cumbria
Tourist attractions in Cumbria
Windermere, Cumbria