Olney - Cowper and Newton

Today we decided to go out on a visit - the museum in Olney dedicated to William Cowper and John Newton is about 20 minutes by car from the marina. It opens at 11 so there was no mad rush to getaway early!

Much of the car parking in Olney is free and not time limited  but it was also market day (only a small number of stalls are taken these days). As a result we struggled to find a space (it may be free but it was not free!) but in the end we struck lucky to find a short term space (1 hour) almost next to the museum.

Orchard Side is a substantial building on one side of the market place - it may at one time have been two dwellings later combined into one. This is where William Cowper, famous poet of the 18C, lived much of his later life and wrote most of his best known works.

John Newton, famous as a reformed slave trader, parish priest and high profile slave trade abolitionist. His first main parish was here in Olney. He and William collaborated in writing hymns - at the time churches were just beginning to sing hymns - effectively musical settings of poems of a religious nature. Before this, only psalms and other words from scripture (such a While shepherds watched their flocks by night) were allowed to be sung by the congregation. The result was the collection of Olney Hymns, some of which remain popular today. Of course, the most well known is Amazing Grace, sung originally to a different tune from that which everyone now knows.

In this blog we are not going to attempt a meaningful biography of either of these writers and campaigners but focus on items in the museum that caught our eyes. (There is plenty of useful detail on line)

We began our visit in the walled gardens. The Trust that runs the museum does a tremendous job of keeping the space close to how it would have been when Cowper lived here.

Of course, like for all gardeners this summer, it has been a tough task but plenty of plants are showing signs of perking up again and there are some splashes of colour, even at the start of October.

A couple of Strawberry Trees (something we had not come across before) carry bright berries for much of the season.

The most famous item in the gardens is the Garden House where William Cowper spent many hours most days sitting, reading and writing. He had several periods of severe mental ill health and he must have found considerable benefit from the peaceful stetting.

At the suggestion of one of the volunteers, we bought hot pork rolls from a shop nearby and took them back to the gardens to eat! Afterwards we tackled the main museum.

During one difficult period a lady friend cheered him up by telling the amusing story of John Gilpin. Soon William had turned this into what became a very popular poem which sold well (initially under a pseudonym) along with illustrations. The idea caught on and attracted several well known cartoonists to publish their own versions including by one in the 20C by Ronald Searle.

John Newton is well known for his role in the slave trade. He was taken to sea from an early age by his father and became First Mate and then Captain of a slave ship, making at least three voyages to buy slaves from Sierra leone and taking them to Antigua. On one almost disastrous occasion in which his ship all but foundered, he had an almost immediate conversion to Evangelical Christianity, His espousal of the abolitionist cause was much more gradual and he continued to invest in the trade for some time. He eventually took on the challenge of campaigning very publicly for the abolition of the trade on which he had been raised, together with the prominent MP, William Wilberforce, eventually succeeding just before he died.

In the museum there is a model that shows how cramped conditions were, and an inscription of the floor marks out the space allocated to each slave.

In the time that Cowper and Newton lived in Olney its population was about 2000, with 1500 employed in the lace trade. Lace making was not a tradition in the area before this but brought here by several migrations from the continent where it was longer established.

Children were taught how to make lace from the age of 5, either by their mothers or in special lace schools. Conditions were harsh from the outset and wages some of the lowest.

Lace makers had to hire tools and templates from the lace traders who also often paid in kind rather than cash. They were usually tied to a single trader which further reduced their ability to demand better pay. Whilst Newton was campaigning on the slave trade, Cowper did much to highlight the plight of lace workers.

After leaving the museum - the volunteers had all been most friendly and helpful - we walked to the nearby parish church where John Newton was Curate (parish priest) for 16 years. He then moved to be Rector at a church in London where he died and was initially buried along with his wife. 

Their remains were later re-interred here in Olney churchyard with a very distinctive granite tomb - that is in one corner of the churchyard but obviously different from some distance! Google gives the reason for this move as "their remains were exhumed in late 1892 and early 1893 due to the closure of London crypts under the Burial Acts and sanitary concerns." A lot more detail can be found here.