Wightwick Manor - Arts & Crafts Splendour in the Black Country

Friday was one of those wonderful crisp, bright and sunny days, perfect for a wander around a stately home and a picnic in the garden. Our destination was our nearest National Trust property, the heart-achingly beautiful Wightwick Manor (pronounced Witt-ick), just an eleven mile drive from our front door and one of our most frequently visited houses. It's hard to believe that Wightwick is just three miles outside Wolverhampton, the principal city of the Black Country.

Wightwick Manor was gifted by then owner, Geoffrey Mander, to the National Trust in 1937, the first house given under the country house scheme which had been introduced a few months earlier. Sir Geoffrey continued to live in the house with his wife, Lady Mander, opening the building to the public on Thursday afternoons. As the property got more popular the National Trust provided helpers to welcome guests and offer guided tours.

Wightwick Manor was a survivor of the fickle nature of fashion. Its Aesthetic Movement interiors, heavy with the designs by William Morris and his associates, had almost been lost in the 1920's but found new life in the 1930s and 40s. With its barley twist brick chimneys and oak framed white-washed walls, the design of house looked to be something from five centuries earlier, rather than just five decades old. 

When the wealthy industrialist, Theodore Mander, commissioned the building of a new manor on Wightwick Bank in the Old English style in 1887 he started the Mander family's love for Victorian art & design which would unfold over a century of collecting and preservation. However, his untimely death in 1900 left the care and development of the new home to his eldest son, Geoffrey (1882 - 1962). Educated at Harrow & Cambridge, Sir Geoffrey Le Mesurier Mander, served in the Royal Flying Corps in WWI and was a practicing lawyer. He entered the Houses of Parliament as a Liberal MP for Wolverhampton West in 1929. He was chairman for the family firm, Mander Brothers, for a generation, a major manufacturer of paints, inks and varnishes in the British Empire. Number 10, Downing Street's famous door was, for generations, painted in Mander's black exterior gloss.

The true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life. ― William Morris

If I were asked to say what is at once the most important production of Art and the thing most to be longed for, I should answer, A Beautiful House. ― William Morris

Large or small (the garden) should be orderly and rich. It should be well fenced from the outside world. It should be no means imitate either the willfulness or wildness of nature, but should look like a thing never to be seen except near the house. It should, in fact, look like part of the house. ― William Morris

Laden Autumn here I stand, Worn of heart, and weak of hand, Nought but rest seems good to me, Speak the word that sets me free.  ― William Morris

Sir Geoffrey Mander remarried in 1930. His new wife Rosalie Glynn Grylls gave up her ambitions to be a Liberal MP and focused her attention on English literature and art. Starting with a biography of Mary Shelley, her surroundings at Wightwick soon inspired her to research the Pre-Raphaelites, especially Rossetti.

Jane Burdon, Mrs William Morris - Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1839 - 1914) 

The Rescue - John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (1829 - 1908)

Study of Alexa Wilding - Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1839 - 1914)

Jane Nassau Senior (1828 - 1877) by G.F Watts, was Britain's first civil servant and a close friend of Octavia Hill, founder of the National Trust. Her brother, Thomas Hughes, wrote Tom Browne's Schooldays.

Wightwick had no Pre-Raphaelite art prior to 1937. Once the house put into the care of the National Trust, Sir Geoffrey and Lady Mander started to buy art to put on display for their visitors. The first was a portrait of Jane Morris by Rossetti.Over time a unique collection developed, with some major pieces supplied by the National Trust, and small works and sketches either purchased or donated. The collection has over 70 works by D.G Rossetti; 50 by Edward Burne-Jones; 23 by Evelyn De Morgan and 20 by Millais.

William Morris never came to the house, nor did his company formally design for it. Instead, all the wallpapers, fabric wall coverings and soft furnishings were bought through the Morris & Co shop or catalogue. 

This is my dream house (hence the profusion of photographs) but be warned lovers of grey paint and minimalist interiors, this is probably your worst nightmare. Scroll down at your peril!

We love following first-timers around Wightwick, hearing them sigh with delight and exclaim how its the most beautiful National Trust property they've ever been visited. I defy anyone not to fall in love with the opulent William Morris wallpapers and textiles, the dreamy Pre-Raphaelite paintings and the magnificent William De Morgan ceramics.

Love Among The Ruins - Edward Byrne Jones (1833 - 1898)

What is an artist but a workman who is determined that, whatever else happens, his work should be excellent? ― William Morris

William Morris never came to the house, nor did his company formally design for it. Instead, all the wallpapers, fabric wall coverings and soft furnishings were bought through the Morris & Co shop or catalogue. 

 

 No pattern should be without some sort of meaning. ― William Morris

Do not be afraid of large patterns, if properly designed they are more restful to the eye than small ones: on the whole a pattern where the structure is large and the details much broken up is the most useful....very small rooms, as well as very large ones, look better ornamented with large patterns.  ― William Morris

All rooms ought to look like they were lived in, and to have so to say, a friendly welcome ready for the incomer. ― William Morris

Ornamental pattern work, to be raised above the contempt of reasonable men, must possess three qualities; beauty, imagination and order. ― William Morris

Elaine by Emma Sandys (1843 - 1877)

I'm sure my friend Elaine will love her namesake, painted by one of the overlooked female pre-Raphaelite artists of the day. Isn't she beautiful? 

You may hang your walls with tapestry instead of whitewash or paper; or you may cover them with mosaic; or have them frescoed by a great painter; all this is not luxury, if it is done for beauty's sake, and not for show. ― William Morris

Study of a Nubian Lion - Ernest Henri Griset (1849 - 1907)

Portrait of Mrs Stillman - Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1839 - 1914)

Have nothing in your house you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
― William Morris

If there is a reason for keeping the wall very quiet, choose a pattern that works all over without pronounced lines...Put very succinctly, architectural effect depends upon a nice balance of horizontal, vertical and oblique. No rules can say how much of each; so nothing can really take the place of feeling and good judgement. ― William Morris

Lord Jon and I always ask one another if you were allowed to take one thing home as a souvenir from your visit what would it be? On Friday Jon chose a rug from the Great Hall and I went for the large De Morgan vase decorated with sea serpents (It'll be something different next time, it always is!)

Play along, which treasure would you choose?