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Birthplace and home of Richard Jefferies
Richard Jefferies was born at Coate Farm near Swindon on 6th of November 1848. The author spent his childhood exploring Coate Water and the local fields and woods, observing wildlife and nature with an enquiring eye. The area around his home at Coate has been known for years as “Jefferies Land”. It has become a place of pilgrimage for generations of readers.
Jefferies had a great exhilaration for life. His unique expression of his relationship to nature has won him a secure place in the hearts of imaginative people. He has been described as a “many sided genius”. Historians cite him as an authority on agriculture and rural life in Victorian England. Major studies of mysticism have anthologised his work and discussed his ideas. He wrote one of the great novels for boys, as well as several highly original novels for adult readers. He is recognised as one of the greatest nature writers in the language and he topped a Guardian 2005 poll for favourite country writers.
The old house at Coate started life as a rambling, thatched cottage built in the early 18th century. The small dairy farm came into the possession of the Jefferies family in the year 1800. Richard Jefferies’ great grandfather, a baker and miller in Swindon, bought the freehold of the 36 acre farm for £1,100. The property was then known locally as Jefferies’ Farm. Richard Jefferies would later change the name of the house to Coate Farm in his famous letters to The Times in 1872. The original Coate Farm, now demolished, was located further north-west.
In 1825 Jefferies’ Farm was passed down to John Jefferies, Richard Jefferies’ grand-father (Grandfather Iden in "Amaryllis at the Fair") then working in London for a printer and publisher named Taylor. John reluctantly returned to Swindon with his wife in order to take over the running of the family milling and bakery business in The Square, Old Town, where his succulent specialities would earn him the nickname “Mr Lardy Cake”. John’s father, who had no faith in banks, left a hoard of spade guineas in his house in The Square. Some of this money might have been used by John Jefferies to build the larger, brick-built extension (the present day museum) on to the side of the old thatched farmhouse. In John Jefferies’ day the extension was also thatched. Later, in 1886, in a letter to his father, Richard Jefferies mentions not having seen the new blue slates. Fanny Hall, daughter of Richard Jefferies’ Aunt Martha, remembers: “Until the thatch was replaced by slate roofing, it was picturesque.”
John Jefferies’ eldest son, James Luckett, first ran the farm with his eldest sister Fanny from about the age of 15 to 21 years (1837) and then worked in America returning to Coate Farm in 1841. He married Elizabeth (Betsy) Gyde in 1844, described by her niece, Fanny Hall, as a “town-bred woman, with a beautiful face, and a pleasure-loving soul, kind and generous to a fault, but unsuited for a country life.”
On 6th November 1848, the author (John) Richard Jefferies was born. He was the second of five children. In 1851, the first child, Ellen, was killed by a runaway horse when she was only 5½. A third child, Henry (“Harry”), was born in June 1852. The death of Ellen, the addition of Harry to the family and the probable stress on Jefferies’ mother might be why the young Richard Jefferies went to live with his mother’s sister, Ellen Gyde - of whom he would remain very fond - and her husband Thomas Harrild, in Sydenham from about the age of 4 years. He spent his summer holidays at Coate and returned permanently to the farm around the age of nine.
Richard Jefferies’ sister Sarah was born in July 1853. Another brother, “Charlie”, followed in November 1858.
Richard Jefferies’ grandfather died in 1868. In the will, Jefferies’ father, James Luckett, inherited the farm he had worked for 24 years. However, the bequest came with a condition that legacies should be paid to his married sisters, Fanny Cox and Martha Hall totalling £1,300. James Luckett found this debt a great burden and had to mortgage the property to meet the terms of the will. As a consquence, financial troubles would force him to put his home up for sale in 1877.
James Luckett was as much a scholar as a farmer. As a lover of nature and the countryside, he spent time and money improving the garden - planting fruit trees and flowering shrubs and growing potatoes (Forty-folds were a favoured variety).
Richard Jefferies grew up to share his father’s passion for books, nature and the countryside, but he never had any interest in farming.
Richard Jefferies married Jessie Baden on 8 July 1874. Jessie lived at Day House Farm and for a brief period the couple lived in Victoria Road, Swindon. They moved to London to further Jefferies’ writing career and finally settled in Sussex in a house with sea views.
After a prolonged and painful illness, Jefferies died of tuberculosis on 14 August 1887, aged 38, at his final home at Goring-by-Sea, Worthing leaving a wife and two children.
After a succession of different owners, Swindon Corporation bought the property at Coate in 1926 for about £2000. It is now a Grade II listed building.
The main front door and gate to the Museum are painted blue in honour of the “blue doors” described by Jefferies in The Old House at Coate.
Richard Jefferies drew on his experiences of farm-life, nature and of places he knew well to add detail to his essays and novels. There are many descriptions of the house in his work. They help to build up a picture of how the farm might have looked in his time.
Jefferies never mentioned places by name but it is clear from his descriptions that many of the local scenes portrayed in his writing were based on Coate and its environs. Books that reflect the area include Wood Magic, Bevis – the Story of a Boy, The Amateur Poacher, Wild Life in a Southern County, Amaryllis at the Fair, Toilers in the Field, The Old House at Coate, The Dewy Morn, Greene Ferne Farm, The Story of my Heart, Life of the Fields, Open Air, Field and Hedgerow, After London, The Gamekeeper at Home and Round About a Great Estate.
Birthplace and home of Richard Jefferies
Richard Jefferies was born at Coate Farm near Swindon on 6th of November 1848. The author spent his childhood exploring Coate Water and the local fields and woods, observing wildlife and nature with an enquiring eye. The area around his home at Coate has been known for years as “Jefferies Land”. It has become a place of pilgrimage for generations of readers.
Jefferies had a great exhilaration for life. His unique expression of his relationship to nature has won him a secure place in the hearts of imaginative people. He has been described as a “many sided genius”. Historians cite him as an authority on agriculture and rural life in Victorian England. Major studies of mysticism have anthologised his work and discussed his ideas. He wrote one of the great novels for boys, as well as several highly original novels for adult readers. He is recognised as one of the greatest nature writers in the language and he topped a Guardian 2005 poll for favourite country writers.
The old house at Coate started life as a rambling, thatched cottage built in the early 18th century. The small dairy farm came into the possession of the Jefferies family in the year 1800. Richard Jefferies’ great grandfather, a baker and miller in Swindon, bought the freehold of the 36 acre farm for £1,100. The property was then known locally as Jefferies’ Farm. Richard Jefferies would later change the name of the house to Coate Farm in his famous letters to The Times in 1872. The original Coate Farm, now demolished, was located further north-west.
In 1825 Jefferies’ Farm was passed down to John Jefferies, Richard Jefferies’ grand-father (Grandfather Iden in "Amaryllis at the Fair") then working in London for a printer and publisher named Taylor. John reluctantly returned to Swindon with his wife in order to take over the running of the family milling and bakery business in The Square, Old Town, where his succulent specialities would earn him the nickname “Mr Lardy Cake”. John’s father, who had no faith in banks, left a hoard of spade guineas in his house in The Square. Some of this money might have been used by John Jefferies to build the larger, brick-built extension (the present day museum) on to the side of the old thatched farmhouse. In John Jefferies’ day the extension was also thatched. Later, in 1886, in a letter to his father, Richard Jefferies mentions not having seen the new blue slates. Fanny Hall, daughter of Richard Jefferies’ Aunt Martha, remembers: “Until the thatch was replaced by slate roofing, it was picturesque.”
John Jefferies’ eldest son, James Luckett, first ran the farm with his eldest sister Fanny from about the age of 15 to 21 years (1837) and then worked in America returning to Coate Farm in 1841. He married Elizabeth (Betsy) Gyde in 1844, described by her niece, Fanny Hall, as a “town-bred woman, with a beautiful face, and a pleasure-loving soul, kind and generous to a fault, but unsuited for a country life.”
On 6th November 1848, the author (John) Richard Jefferies was born. He was the second of five children. In 1851, the first child, Ellen, was killed by a runaway horse when she was only 5½. A third child, Henry (“Harry”), was born in June 1852. The death of Ellen, the addition of Harry to the family and the probable stress on Jefferies’ mother might be why the young Richard Jefferies went to live with his mother’s sister, Ellen Gyde - of whom he would remain very fond - and her husband Thomas Harrild, in Sydenham from about the age of 4 years. He spent his summer holidays at Coate and returned permanently to the farm around the age of nine.
Richard Jefferies’ sister Sarah was born in July 1853. Another brother, “Charlie”, followed in November 1858.
Richard Jefferies’ grandfather died in 1868. In the will, Jefferies’ father, James Luckett, inherited the farm he had worked for 24 years. However, the bequest came with a condition that legacies should be paid to his married sisters, Fanny Cox and Martha Hall totalling £1,300. James Luckett found this debt a great burden and had to mortgage the property to meet the terms of the will. As a consquence, financial troubles would force him to put his home up for sale in 1877.
James Luckett was as much a scholar as a farmer. As a lover of nature and the countryside, he spent time and money improving the garden - planting fruit trees and flowering shrubs and growing potatoes (Forty-folds were a favoured variety).
Richard Jefferies grew up to share his father’s passion for books, nature and the countryside, but he never had any interest in farming.
Richard Jefferies married Jessie Baden on 8 July 1874. Jessie lived at Day House Farm and for a brief period the couple lived in Victoria Road, Swindon. They moved to London to further Jefferies’ writing career and finally settled in Sussex in a house with sea views.
After a prolonged and painful illness, Jefferies died of tuberculosis on 14 August 1887, aged 38, at his final home at Goring-by-Sea, Worthing leaving a wife and two children.
After a succession of different owners, Swindon Corporation bought the property at Coate in 1926 for about £2000. It is now a Grade II listed building.
The main front door and gate to the Museum are painted blue in honour of the “blue doors” described by Jefferies in The Old House at Coate.
Richard Jefferies drew on his experiences of farm-life, nature and of places he knew well to add detail to his essays and novels. There are many descriptions of the house in his work. They help to build up a picture of how the farm might have looked in his time.
Jefferies never mentioned places by name but it is clear from his descriptions that many of the local scenes portrayed in his writing were based on Coate and its environs. Books that reflect the area include Wood Magic, Bevis – the Story of a Boy, The Amateur Poacher, Wild Life in a Southern County, Amaryllis at the Fair, Toilers in the Field, The Old House at Coate, The Dewy Morn, Greene Ferne Farm, The Story of my Heart, Life of the Fields, Open Air, Field and Hedgerow, After London, The Gamekeeper at Home and Round About a Great Estate.