The Izaak Walton Cottage is a seventeenth-century timber framed building in Shallowford,

Chebsey Chebsey is a small village in Staffordshire 2.5 miles southeast of Eccleshall on a confluence of Eccleshall water and the River Sow some 5 miles northwest of Stafford. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 566. It comprise ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, England. It belonged to the writer

Izaak Walton Izaak Walton (baptised 21 September 1593 – 15 December 1683) was an English writer. Best known as the author of ''The Compleat Angler'', he also wrote a number of short biographies including one of his friend John Donne. They have been colle ...

, best known for ''

The Compleat Angler ''The Compleat Angler'' (the spelling is sometimes modernised to ''The Complete Angler'', though this spelling also occurs in first editions) is a book by Izaak Walton. It was first published in 1653 by Richard Marriot in London. Walton continu ...

''. The building is designated

grade II 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 ...

, and is managed as a museum.

History

Izaak Walton's House at Shallowford, Staffordshire, 1888

Walton was born in

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

in 1593. After running a business in London, he acquired some property at Shallowford, including the cottage, in the 1650s. The cottage is near a brook called the Meece (a tributary of the Sow), and the fishing there is believed to be one reason he was attracted to the rural locality. On his death in 1683 he bequeathed the property for the benefit of the poor of Stafford. The surroundings are still rural, but in 1837 the Grand Junction Railway was built through the valley separating the buildings from a section of the Meece. The farm and the cottage became derelict but continued to be tenanted until 1920 when the property was offered for sale. Local Stafford businessmen formed The Izaak Walton Cottage Trust to establish a small museum dedicated to the famous writer. They raised £50 to purchase the site and £500 to repair the cottage.

Lord Stafford Baron Stafford, referring to the town of Stafford, is a title that has been created several times in the Peerage of England. In the 14th century, the barons of the first creation were made earls. Those of the fifth creation, in the 17th century ...

ceremonially opened the museum on 30 April 1924. In 1927 sparks from a steam train caused a fire that destroyed the thatched roof, and the museum was closed for a year. There was another fire in 1938, and in 1939 the cottage re-opened with a tiled roof. The building was listed in 1952. The Trust wound up in 1965, and the building was taken over by

Stafford Borough Council Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in the ...

. During the 1990s the thatched roof was restored. The ground floor of the museum is set-out in period, with information boards covering Walton's life, his writings and the story of the Izaak Walton Cottage. Upstairs a collection of fishing related items is displayed, the earliest dating from the mid-eighteenth century, while a room is dedicated to his '' Lives'' and ''The Compleat Angler''.

Access

The Izaak Walton Cottage and gardens are open to the public on Sunday afternoons during the summer.

References

External links

* - Main Website
Website of Potteries.org - Neville Malkin's "Grand Tour" of the Potteries
Retrieved Feb 2017 = Has several old pictures, drawings and historical narrative {{coord, 52.85853, -2.18582, format=dms, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Biographical museums in Staffordshire Buildings and structures in Stafford Fishing museums Grade II listed houses in Staffordshire Historic house museums in Staffordshire Houses completed in the 17th century Literary museums in England Thatched buildings in England Timber framed buildings in Staffordshire

History

Access

See also

References

External links