The Wordsworth Trust Annual Review 2015

annual review 2015

“A place of inspiration for people around the world�

2015 in numbers contents

5,716 47,859 Visitors to Dove Cottage, the Wordsworth Museum and the Jerwood Centre

Secondary, primary and pre-school Young people in formal education (student engagements) 4,096 Secondary, primary and pre-school 62% Offsite activity 1,620 Higher education including 539 short courses

1,118 Family tickets sold

3,954

The Wordsworth Trust at a glance 2015 in Summary

People taking part in outreach and community activities

Exhibitions 6 Other General Activities 8

1,244 Specifically for elderly / vulnerable adults 1,001 Specifically for families

Schools 10 Higher Education 12

1,549 1,016

People of all ages attending talks, Secondary, primary and pre-school poetry readings, workshops and other public events

Families and Communities

14

Custodianship 16 Reimagining Wordsworth

5,254

18

Annual Report

Future Learn course participants

Youtube and Vimeo views

4

18,577

Aims, Objectives and Activities

20

Achievements and Performance

21

Future Plans 26

Visits to blog

Financial Review 28

13

People receiving full-time vocational training (starting in year)

93,667 Unique visits to website

30

Supporters 33

190

Events and Activities 35

Scholars using research facilities (research days)

11

Summary Group Accounts

How you can Help

38

Governance and Management

39

5,856

volunteers

People gaining access to educational material (publication sales)

13,803

Social media followers

cover quote :

‘A place of inspiration for people around the world’, made by a visitor in our 2015 comments book.

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The Wordsworth trust at a glance

Digital activities

Loans & touring exhibitions

Research

Local communities

Youtube & Vimeo channels

Online collection catalogue

Grasmere History Group

Poetry groups

Online courses

The Research and Education Space

‘Wordsworth on the Road’

Talks & presentations

Saturday talks & workshops ‘Wordsworth & Romanticism’ blog

publishing

Community gallery

‘Romanticism: Life, Literature & Landscape

Elderly and Vulnerable people

Dove cottage

Guided tours

Wordsworth Museum

Dove Cottage garden

Events

Exhibitions

Families

Literature classes

‘Dove Cottage Tuesdays’

‘Tales for Tots’

‘Rucksack of Rhymes’

Contemporary poetry

‘In the Footsteps of Wordsworth’ guided walks

‘Terrific Treks’ & ‘Wild Walks’

Visits to local libraries

Saturday talks & workshops ‘The Wordsworth Lecture’

Museums at Night, The Big Draw, National Poetry Day etc

‘Wordsworth Wednesdays’ on Lakeland Radio

‘Family Fun at Dove Cottage’

Higher education

Workshops

Short courses

Art installations

Schools

‘Real Live Writers’

Teaching aids & teacher training

Workshops

Visits to schools

After-School Club

Guided tours

‘Dove Cottage Young Poets’

AIMS

Exhibitions 2015 in summary

2015 in numbers

2 637

new special exhibitions

exhibition viewing days

10

Excellent exhibition! Lots of visuals and large word formats make it easier for both the young and the elderly.

The whole exhibition is beautifully presented.

An eye-opener … A very informative exhibition.

Images (L-R from top): Grasmere WI visit to Grasmere and the Great War. The exhibition showed to March 2015; Stephen Sharp, Estate Manager, and Peter Foster, Estate Worker, installing Wordsworth, War and Waterloo (March to November). The carronade, from HMS Foudroyant, was kindly loaned by Mrs Diana Matthews; Wordsworth, War and Waterloo exhibition; ‘Selfies with Streetsigns’: our visitors help research how the Battle of Waterloo has been permanently memorialised; Shepherds to Char-a-bancs, the Grasmere History Group's third exhibition (from November)

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Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

community displays

You probably know that William Wordsworth was one of the greatest poets of all time and that he just happened to live in the Lake District! You probably also know he wrote a poem about daffodils. What you may not know, unlike an enthusiastic group of Year 7 pupils, is that he was also a war poet and that he spent some of his youth in war torn France; witnessing the French Revolution first-hand.

The Year 7 group visited Dove Cottage where they spent time in a special exhibition entitled, ‘Wordsworth, War and Waterloo.’

The exhibition is packed with artefacts from the war as well as great caricature drawings and paintings from the time. The macabre collection of ‘Waterloo Teeth,’ show how harsh the times were as the bodies of soldiers were robbed of their teeth to be used as false ones by the wealthy.

The exhibition inspired the pupils to write their own poetry and produce art work on the theme of heroes and villains. Was Wordsworth a hero for supporting the common man? Year Seven certainly thought so! At the exhibition, the group got to dress up as Napoleon or Wellington, ‘striking a pose’ to depict a hero or a villain.

With a real-life poet and artist from Dove Cottage returning to school a few days later, the pupils were able to complete their work and this will now go back to the Wordsworth Trust to form part of the exhibition.

Teacher, John Ruskin School, Coniston 7

Other general activities 2015 in summary

2015 in numbers

47,859 1,549 5,254 5,856 18,577

visitors to Dove Cottage, the Wordsworth Museum and the Jerwood Centre attendances at events

participants in the ‘William Wordsworth: Poetry, People & Place’ online course publications sold

visits to the ‘Wordsworth & Romanticism’ and ‘Wordsworth Trust’ blogs

[Our guide] made time for everyone and made sure my mother’s experience was of equal value to fully sighted visitors. I am now enjoying her recommendation of Dorothy’s Journal, following it week by week.

Visitor, June

I am taking this opportunity to thank you very much for the excellent online course run in conjunction with Future Learn and Lancaster University on William Wordsworth.

I thoroughly enjoyed learning so much about Wordsworth … the course opened my mind.

The Cottage is fascinating and the guides enthusiastic and friendly, whilst the Museum is very well worth a visit in its own right … Not to be missed.

Visitor (on Trip Advisor), June

A hearty thank you for allowing this lovely and informative book [Excursion to Wordsworthshire] to be available commercially. I ordered it over the phone (sight unseen) and my delight on receiving it was surpassed only by its contents and design … that this is one of the best books purchased by me in a very long time is no understatement.

The combination of specialist knowledge and general enthusiasm was captivating.

Participant, ‘I Read, and Loved the Books in Which I Read’, February

Images (L-R from top): Bronagh Gallagher, Trainee, leads one of the 'Wild Walks on Wednesdays', May; Pop-Up Poetry Café, December; An Afternoon in Dove Cottage: 'For the Love of Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal', February.

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schools Scissors “Take off your clothes” they said So she did And they prodded and poked made their assessments and led her to a fun house mirror “Look at your body” they said So she did But her reflected eyes couldn’t meet her own the distortion too great she became dizzy and they pushed and pulled and handed her scissors and she snipped away to the bone Em Humble, Dove Cottage Young Poets

2015 in summary

The Story of Loneliness The story of loneliness is an empty book.

The technology of loneliness is that he’s surrounded by connections without an ethernet cable wireless connection failing.

The tragedy of loneliness is Romeo with no Juliet but the ending stays the same The secret to loneliness Is telling everyone everything but in coded verse.

The surprise of loneliness Is that the outside is alive but the inside is not like a fungus.

The theatre of loneliness is a full ensemble unable to connect with the audience The threat of loneliness is that blank pages are so unemotive

2015 in numbers

57 85 138 35 4,096 122 schools made

We made

visits to

teachers received professional training.

We launched Extremely well planned, organised and resourced. The children have thoroughly enjoyed learning about William Wordsworth and improving their writing skills.

Beetham Primary School, June

After-School Club with Grasmere Primary School, led

by Alexandra Fleming, Trainee, December

The visit helped to bring the poems alive.

The Lakes School, Windermere, October They enjoyed themselves immensely.

An inspiring and enriching experience.

The Radcliffe School, Milton Keynes, November

School Visitor Numbers

These sessions have helped the children understand how Wordsworth has inspired so many other poets, and how poetry can enable people with different opinions and backgrounds to connect. The reading group has really developed the children’s confidence to engage with poetry. The sessions touched on some sensitive issues, but the children enjoyed exploring them through Wordsworth as it felt very unthreatening. The opportunity to [join] other Year-6 children from different schools has been a real positive.

1200 256 Key stage 1 (5–7 year-olds) 900 1,454 Key stage 2 (7–11 year-olds) 600

1,020 Key stage 3 (11–14 year-olds)

300

694 Key stage 4 (14–16 year-olds) 672 Key stage 5 (16–19 year-olds)

0

Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

schools and other educational establishments.

young people benefited.

Lizzy Briggs, Dove Cottage Young Poets

1500

visits to Dove Cottage.

Thank you, you have made the sessions and Wordsworth great fun.

Langdale Primary School, December 10

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new programmes for local primary schools

The Wordsworth Trust, Dove Cottage is a wonderful location in which to enhance classroom learning. The variety of activities, all linked by their connection to William Wordsworth and his poetry, offer a rich opportunity for visiting schools. The developments in the five years since the last award have really improved the Education service and there is a clear commitment to maintaining the high standard of the offer.

Amanda Phillipson, Lead Judge, the Heritage Education Trust Sandford Awards 2015

After-School Club with Grasmere Primary School, led by Catherine Kay, Education Officer, October. Behind is Uta Kogelsberger's 'Sky Painting'

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‘Trust Wordsworth’

HIGHER EDUCATION

Here, the sky seems not a sky of earth.

There is a dearth of the dirge that lurks in the murk, the worries and work of the city.

In the vigour and the verve of the verse we’re immersed.

We thirst for a feel of a first edition, we linger and listen to Lyrical Ballads, rabid for stanzas relearning their power, in the matter of hours they ours to devour and treasure.

Pressing paper in present pleasure, in this moment there is life and food and letters and proofs to see us through future years, Kettle Chips and wine round fireside and lines of lyrics for hungry ears to hear.

Here, we are curating, making, commonplacing, changing our minds, as entwined as the books that we bind.

United in purpose, all in the service of the worth and the words of Wordsworth.

Immersed in the merge magic and mirth, in our work we take pride, living one of those heavenly days that cannot die, where you and I, impressed chain lines in our lives.

With self-carved quills we scribe, handwriting appalling in gall ink, it’s galling to leave.

In every piece in every part have been the breathings of our heart.

It is hard to depart but we leave watermarked with the knowledge of how to fold quires, new heights to which we aspire, the words that have freshly inspired, the wit and the warmth of a Dove Cottage fire.

Perfect contentment, unity entire.

2015 in summary

2015 in numbers

1,620

1,355 72

teaching days for

in

students from

56

universities and colleges,

separate visits to Dove Cottage.

You taught me lessons not only about Wordsworth and his work but also about the value of the sort of work you do and your particular approach to it.

Student, University of Liverpool, March I had always considered the impact agenda in higher education as centred on the research itself.

Thinking about the needs of the local community and how to best help them allowed me to see ‘impact’ in a new light.

Participant in the Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership symposium (Queens University Belfast, Durham University and Newcastle University), April.

I think most people would agree that the original of a painting is more powerful than a reproduction, but I didn’t realise the importance of an original manuscript’s physicality until these workshops … It is one thing to hold an anthology in your hand, it’s another to see exactly where Wordsworth flubbed his words the same way you do.

Student, Kenyon College, Ohio, May I developed a new appreciation for Wordsworth, and I’m so glad for the opportunity to intimately experience him and his world.

Student, Louisiana State University, July

Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

On our last day in Grasmere, students quickly finished up their online exhibition, linking the writings of William and Dorothy Wordsworth and images of their manuscripts with photographs and drawings of the places they describe.

Their intention was to assemble something that the Trust would find useful for its outreach programme to seniors with memory loss. Then came the test: how would it be received?

They had an exacting audience: Jeff Cowton, Curator of the Wordsworth Trust, and Gillian Dow, head of research at Chawton House Library, the centre of Jane Austen studies. I was impressed with the clarity of their presentation, and the sophistication of the project—and so were Cowton and Dow. It was a triumph.

Dr Bruce Graver, Providence College, Rhode Island

Megan Beech, graduate student, Cambridge University, and performance poet

Commonplace Books exhibition in the Community Gallery by postgraduate students from Cambridge University, October

Students from Newman Uniiversity, Birmingham, March

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Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

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outreach activities

Families and communities

2015 in summary

2015 in summary

2015 in numbers Cumbria Outreach and Offsite Activities Ambleside Appleby Barrow-in-Furness Bassenthwaite Brough Broughton-in-Furness Burgh by Sands Caldbeck Carlisle Cockermouth Dalton-in-Furness Gosforth Grange over Sands Grasmere Hayton Hesket Newmarket Kendal Keswick Kirkby Lonsdale Kirkby Stephen Lamplugh Lazonby Maryport Millom Milnthorpe Newby Bridge Orton

Dorothy Wordsworth workshop with Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School, January

people at

Penrith Port Carlisle Santon Bridge Seascale Shap Ullock Ulverston Walney Island Whitehaven Wigton Windermere Workington

Allithwaite Ambleside Beetham Chapel Stile Cockermouth Coniston Crooklands Dent Egremont Kirkby Stephen Grasmere High Hesket Kendal Penrith Whitehaven

Outreach and Offsite Activities

Visits to Schools Bootle (Merseyside) Cirencester Edinburgh Liverpool Garston (Merseyside) Harrogate Keynsham (near Bristol) Skelmersdale Trowbridge

community activities in

40 6

people at events and activities in

towns and villages in Cumbria.

other parts of the UK.

attendances at events specifically for elderly / vulnerable adults. attendances at events specifically for families.

Visits to Schools

Rest of UK Belfast Cardiff Chawton Liverpool London Newcastle Keynsham (near Bristol)

3,836 265 118 1,244 1,001 I liked dressing up as Nelson in the Family Room Young visitor, May

The kids (12, 11, 7) loved it … the activities got them scouring the place looking for the key objects. Dressing up was a winner.

Visitor, July My 7-year-old loves football, and running around, but he really seemed to slow down and take everything in. He was informing me about how the children used to live, and how they kept their bedroom warm, and it all seemed to inspire him.

Visitor, September

'In the Moment': an exhibition created by people living with dementia in Kendal, May

I love so very much that your work involves sparking children’s interest in and passion for books. It’s something that mustn’t be lost among the mire of digital screens and impersonal texts that are ten-a-penny these days!

Parent, ‘Love Books’ family event, Barrow-in-Furness Library, February

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custodianship 2015 in summary

Above: conserving the oil painting Ouse Bridge by Mathias Read (1669 – 1747). The painting hadn't been moved for nearly 300 years when it was acquired in 2014! The painting (left) was donated by the W.W. Spooner Charitable Trust in 2014

Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding (1787–1855), A Distant View of Brougham Castle, signed and dated 1854, watercolour over pencil, the gift of the W.W. Spooner Charitable Trust.

Members of the Grasmere History Group watch as the 1863 Ordnance Survey map of Grasmere – the inspiration for the Shepherds to Char-abancs exhibition – is returned from Lancashire Conservation Studios

Lyrical Ballads, with other poems (1800), the gift of the late Mrs Mary Lovell. The volume is one of only ten known to contain the rare insert leaf that makes good the printers' omission of 15 crucial lines of 'Michael'. The printing error reflects the haste in which the 1800 edition of Lyrical Ballads was published William Payne (1760 – 1830), Fisherman, Winandermere Inn Low Wood, pencil, the gift of Dr Cecilia and Mr Nicholas Powell (detail). The fisherman's accoutrements were researched by Anna Szilagyi, one of our Trainees in 2015: “This drawing was made during Payne’s only visit to the Lakes in the summer of 1810. The dip net with the catch of the day hangs on the shoulder of the figure, and the same instrument is shown propped against the tree alongside a seine net: a flexible mesh attached to a pole at each end.

To complete the scene, we get a glimpse of the fisherman’s boat”

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Transactions of the Wordsworth Society No. 7 (1885), the gift of Professor Paul Betz. The volume was once owned

by Professor William Knight, the pioneering Wordsworth scholar who first asserted that, 'No imaginative writer, within the range of English literature, is so peculiarly identified with locality as Wordsworth'. As well as Knight's own annotations, the volume also contains "marks by Robert Browning of Poems approved by him". Browning's 'approved' poems include 'The Reverie of Poor Susan', 'Lucy Gray' and ‘Goody Blake and Harry Gill'

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Joseph Budworth, A fortnight's ramble to the Lakes in Westmoreland, Lancashire, and Cumberland. By a rambler (London, 1795, drab boards), the gift of James Butler. Budworth's guidebook contained his famous account of Mary Robinson, 'The Maid of Buttermere'; second editions are a rarity, because many copies were destroyed in a fire

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Reimagining Wordsworth

We should always remember the fundamental concepts of Romanticism: ideas, feelings and things. These will be at the heart of what we do.

The route of the historic ‘woodland trail’, next to Dove Cottage garden and currently inaccessible

Jeff Cowton, Curator

The next stage In January 2016, the Heritage Lottery Fund said ‘yes’ to our request for a development grant towards our major new project, Reimagining Wordsworth. It is wonderful news.

The Wordsworth Trust has been caring for Dove Cottage as a living memorial to William Wordsworth since 1891. Now, we have a great opportunity to make it possible for even more people to discover one of our greatest poets. They will find new ways of enjoying Wordsworth’s original words, in the very place where they were both inspired and written.

mm

We will awaken a new interest in Wordsworth’s poetry, even amongst those who might have been put off it at school or are coming across it for the first time. We will bring people closer to Wordsworth the man, showing how his poetry was affected by events in his own life. Wordsworth’s experiences reflect our own, and his words can still console, uplift and inspire us today. We will fulfil Wordsworth’s wish for his poetry to make us ‘wiser, better and happier’.

We will finish our planning at the end of 2017, when we will apply again to the Heritage Lottery Fund. If we are successful, we can start putting our plans into action. By reimagining Wordsworth, right here in ‘the loveliest spot that man hath ever found’, we will be in a great position to celebrate his 250th birthday in 2020.

mm

mm

mm

Artist’s impression of an improved Wordsworth Museum

Old Sykeside Garden, one of Town End’s ‘hidden’ green spaces

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since the Wordsworth Museum opened in 1981. Changes in display techniques have been equally significant. We are commissioning architects and designers to help us improve the Museum so that Wordsworth’s life and times, his creative process, themes, ideas and relevance today can be revealed in fresh and exciting ways.

We are now doing the following things, so that we can be ready to submit a second application to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Writing a Conservation Management Plan. This will bring together essential knowledge and technical information about Dove Cottage, the other buildings and the open spaces that make up the historic hamlet of Town End, and the manuscripts, paintings, drawings, books and objects in our collection. The Conservation Management Plan will help us make informed decisions about our buildings, site and collection, so that they can benefit as many people as possible without risk to their condition.

Talking to people: those who know us, support us and participate in our activities, but also those who haven’t come across the Wordsworth Trust before.

Understanding their interests, opinions and expectations will help us make sure that our plans will be successful.

Writing an Activity Plan. This will describe the new ways in which we can help people to discover Wordsworth and his poetry, whether at Dove Cottage, through events in other locations, or via the Internet. We are consulting with specialists to help us find new ideas and make our existing activities even more effective – such as those that benefit young families, schoolchildren, students in higher education, the elderly, and people with physical disabilities or memory loss and other cognitive disorders.

Creating detailed plans for a larger, brighter and more exciting Wordsworth Museum. Our understanding of how museum objects can stimulate thought and discussion has changed significantly

Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

mm

Making plans to reveal our site and its stories, not only to visitors to Dove Cottage but also for the enjoyment of all the walkers and sightseers who pass through the hamlet of Town End. With Wordsworth’s arrival at Dove Cottage at the start of the nineteenth century, Town End became the centre of an extraordinary moment in history. However, many of its stories remain untold, while some of its green spaces remain hidden from view entirely. With the help of heritage advisers, we will find new means of opening up the site and bringing it to life.

mm

Safeguarding our buildings and collection, so that people can continue to enjoy them in the future. We will get advice about monitoring and maintaining the conditions in Dove Cottage, the Museum, and the other places where our collection is kept.

This will include exploring our options for using modern, energy efficient equipment, which could make the Wordsworth Trust both greener as an organisation and cheaper to run.

mm

Launching a fundraising campaign to secure the final £1.2 million needed to make it all happen.

To find out how to get involved and support the project, and to receive updates about Reimagining Wordsworth and all our other news, please subscribe to our email list. www.wordsworth.org.uk/contact-us/ newsletter-signup.

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AIMS, OBJECTIVES & ACTIVITIES

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

Annual Report

The Wordsworth Trust was founded in 1891 to secure Dove Cottage, in the words of its first trustees, “for the eternal possession of those who love English poetry all over the world”.

Since then, it has acquired many of the other historic buildings in the hamlet of Town End, secured the great majority of Wordsworth’s manuscripts, opened the Wordsworth Museum, and established an archive, library and fine art collection that celebrate Romanticism and the cultural history of the Lake District. In 2005 it created the Jerwood Centre, providing the conservation and research facilities needed for these holdings to remain at Dove Cottage, one of the world’s most important literary sites.

The Wordsworth Trust’s purposes are set out in its Memorandum and Articles of Association, and can be summarised as: mm

to provide a living memorial to William Wordsworth and his contemporaries by looking after Dove Cottage and its environs, and by preserving and developing a permanent collection; and

mm

to advance public knowledge and enjoyment of the works of Wordsworth and the literature and culture of the Romantic period (c.1750–1850) through a wide range of public activities.

Annual Report

The Wordsworth Trust’s aims are the same in their intent as these purposes. They provide public benefit through the advancement of education, heritage, culture and the arts. They therefore meet the definition of ‘charitable purposes’ provided by the 2011 Charities Act. Wordsworth sought through his poetry “to console the afflicted, to add sunshine to daylight by making the happy happier, to teach the young and the gracious of every age, to see, to think and feel”. Our activities are inspired by this vision: of a world in which anyone, anywhere can enrich their life through Wordsworth’s ideas and philosophy, regardless of means or background. In undertaking these activities, we have therefore taken due regard of the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance. Publishing, digital technology and venues in various locations are used to ensure that access is not restricted by geography.

While certain programmes are aimed at specific beneficiary groups, most of the activities reported here are open to anyone.

They take place all year round, and some are free of charge.

1. Overview In January 2016, we received the wonderful news that our first-round Heritage Lottery Fund application had been successful. Our strategy, ‘Reimagining Wordsworth’, is now entering its development phase, putting us on course to make profound and exciting changes to our site and activities in time to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Wordsworth’s birth in 2020. We are now embarking on a major programme of consultations, research, planning and fundraising ahead of making a second-round application in two years’ time.

Our experiences in 2015 have given fresh impetus to our strategy. It was another challenging year for visitor numbers, a significant source of income. The withdrawal of our National Portfolio Organisation funding (announced by Arts Council England in 2014) also took effect, with inevitable consequences for our events and our capacity to promote poetry as a living tradition. However, we continued to receive significant Arts Council England support as a Major Partner Museum, and our education and community work went from strength to strength. Through the ‘Catalyst’ programme, Arts Council England also enabled us to complete the Wordsworth Trust’s most public fundraising campaign since the appeal to buy Dove Cottage in 1890.

‘Reimagining Wordsworth’ will address the recent decline in our visitor numbers and play to our recent successes. It will enable us to re-launch Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum as a visitor attraction, take our work with local communities to another level, and build on the goodwill towards the Wordsworth Trust from all over the world that the ‘Catalyst’ campaign revealed. We look forward to an exciting year ahead.

2. Public benefit We use the following measures to monitor the public benefit that the Wordsworth Trust’s activities provide, plus various evaluation methods to understand their contribution to the wellbeing and aspirations of our beneficiaries (see overleaf).

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Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

a) Visitors This year we continued to provide a ‘living memorial’ at Dove Cottage, and to create, in the words of one visitor, “a place of inspiration for people around the world”. We also improved access to Dove Cottage, the garden and the Museum by replacing singleentry tickets with one-year passes (giving visitors unlimited re-entry for twelve months for the standard admission charge), developed after-hours tours of Dove Cottage for groups, and introduced a new audio tour for Chinese visitors.

We continued to provide access to our collection through permanent and changing displays in the Wordsworth Museum. One of several fruits of our ongoing partnership with Lancaster University was the major exhibition, Wordsworth, War & Waterloo, co-curated with Professor Simon Bainbridge. The bicentenary of the battle provided an opportunity to present the Romantics as war poets – in the words of another visitor, to present a “totally different shade of Wordsworth” and his contemporaries. Lenders included Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery; the exhibition also featured items from many private collections, and provided the theme for our events, work with schools and other activities. It ran for seven months from March 2015, and was The Times’s ‘Critic’s Choice’ in June. It also formed our contribution to ‘Lakes Ignite’, a collaboration involving local tourism and cultural organisations supported through Arts Council England’s Cultural Destinations programme.

Wordsworth, War & Waterloo was followed by Shepherds to Char-a-bancs, which explored Grasmere’s transformation from Wordsworth’s ‘republic of agriculturalists and shepherds’ at the start of the nineteenth century to thriving tourist destination by its end. It was curated by the Grasmere History Group and inspired by a local resident’s gift of an 1863 Ordnance Survey map, showing how new acquisitions can inform our activities. Shepherds to Char-a-bancs is the Group’s third exhibition, highlighting the importance of a meaningful relationship between a community and its local museum. Our support for the Grasmere History

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Group is reflected in our outreach figures.

2015

2014

47,859

50,176

-5%

1,118

1,100

+2%

5,716

5,883

-3%

Secondary, primary and pre-school

4,096

4,295

-5%

Of which, activity was offsite

62%

46%

+34%

Visitors to Dove Cottage, the Wordsworth Museum and the Jerwood Centre Family tickets sold Young people in formal education (student engagements)

There were ten displays in our community gallery, of work done by schoolchildren, students, people living with dementia, and other participants in our education and community activities. We also displayed two outdoor installations: Uta Kogelbsberger’s ‘Sky Painting’ was commissioned jointly with our two partners in the Cumbria Museum Consortium, Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery and Lakeland Arts, as part of the nationwide New Expressions programme; Nick Gear’s ‘Catching Words’, an artistic response to The Prelude, was shown for two weeks in September.

Our achievements in 2015 were recognised when, to our delight, we were shortlisted for ‘Museum of the Year’ in November’s Cumbria Life Culture Awards.

Higher education

1,620

1,588

+2%

Of, which short courses

539

343

+57%

3,954

4,606

-14%

Specifically for elderly / vulnerable adults

1,244

1,262

-1%

Specifically for families

1,001

562

+78%

1,549

3,646

-58%

Unique visits to website

93,667

80,375

+17%

Youtube and Vimeo views

1,016

Unavailable

Social media followers

13,803

Unavailable

Future Learn course participants

5,254

0

Visits to blog (browsing sessions)

18,577

2,357

Other

33

0

Scholars using research facilities (research days)

190

190

0%

b) Formal education

People gaining access to educational material (publication sales)

5,856

5,799

+1%

People receiving full-time vocational training (starting in year) ii

13

11

+18%

Volunteers

11

8

+38%

Engagements with young people in formal education fell by 3% against 2014. However, this is a minor fluctuation in the longerterm context: numbers have doubled since we became a Major Partner Museum in 2012, and increased threefold since we first put our learning programme on a more strategic footing in 2009. The decrease is attributable to a short period without a senior education officer in the spring.

People taking part in outreach and community activities

People of all ages attending talks, poetry readings, workshops and other public events i

Unfortunately, visitor numbers in 2015 were disappointing, falling below 50,000 for the first time in over thirty years. Visitor numbers are easy to measure, but it is harder to determine how they relate to the complex range of factors that influence the Lake District visitor market. However, the general downward trend is clear, giving extra urgency to our strategy to reach the potential markets that our research has identified.

Engagements through digital technology

Sales of family tickets bucked the trend and showed another small increase, thanks in part to successful family trails and creative activities linked to Wordsworth, War & Waterloo. In 2016 we will implement a major new phase of our strategy for attracting families, by making admission free to 16s and under. ‘Family tickets sold’ will therefore no longer be one of our measurements.

+688%

Offsite activity also increased, partly because of schools activities in Merseyside linked to the University of Liverpool’s exhibition Dorothy Wordsworth: Sister, Writer, Friend. This exhibition contained 48 loans from our collection, and was

i Relates to events organised and presented by the Wordsworth Trust, but not those planned by other organisations and hosted by the Wordsworth Trust or featuring its representatives. ii Excludes work experience placements.

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Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

based on our own 2013 show, Wonders of the Everyday.

Our schools activities were successfully peer-reviewed in 2015, when we received a Sandford Award, the Heritage Education Trust’s five-yearly quality assessment scheme, for the sixth consecutive time. The judges remarked on “the variety of activities, all linked by their connection to Wordsworth and his poetry, [which] offer a rich opportunity for visiting schools”. Feedback was also positive: “extremely well planned, organised and resourced” (Beetham Primary School); “helped to bring the poems alive” (the Lakes Secondary School, Windermere).

Within the 2% increase in numbers of higher education students, there was an encouraging 57% increase in participants in short courses.

These are tailored to the students’ own requirements, and often take place over several days; they remain central to our strategy for diversifying income. We reached an important milestone in May, delivering our first university-accredited course for eight students of Providence College, Rhode Island.

One participant described the experience as “a stunning revelation”. We were also commissioned by the OCR Examinations Board to produce online teaching resources for a new GCSE poetry anthology.

Other new initiatives included weekly poetry reading activities for our three most local primary schools (Ambleside, Grasmere and Langdale) and a weekly Grasmere after-school club, inspired by Wordsworthian themes and incorporating a range of artistic activities. The ‘Real Live Writers’ workshops, which bring together schoolchildren and professional poets, and the ‘Dove Cottage Young Poets’, our creative writing group for secondary school pupils in Kendal, both continued to flourish. Several of these programmes helped young people to achieve Arts Awards at various levels: in November we learned that the Wordsworth Trust had provided the second-highest number of Arts Awards in the north of England. c) Outreach and Community This has been another major recent growth area. We started recording outreach work in 2011, and since becoming a Major Partner Museum our community programme has increased tenfold. The 14% decrease is due to consolidation in 2015, during which we prioritised sustained, meaningful engagements with our key target groups over one-off contacts at high-attendance events such as agricultural shows.

Engagements with elderly / vulnerable

23

adults were broadly in line with 2014, and we continued to bring opportunities to enjoy poetry and art to people in sheltered housing, retirement homes and day care centres across Cumbria. Our ‘What are Words Worth?’ and ‘In the Moment’ sessions catered specifically for people living with dementia, and all our activities were delivered through successful partnerships with Age UK, the Alzheimer’s Society, Copeland Occupational & Social Care, Cumbria Library Service and other agencies.

An elderly participant in a ‘Wordsworth on the Road’ event, organised with the South Lakes Youth Council, claimed it had restored his faith and confidence in young people.

Engagements with families increased significantly. Our ‘Rucksack of Rhymes’ sessions in libraries and children’s centres were especially popular, as were ‘Heroes & Villains’ activities linked to Wordsworth, War & Waterloo. 57 family activities took place in 21 towns and villages in Cumbria; again, there were also activities in Merseyside.

Engagement with local residents was also boosted by outreach work done by a Leeds University PhD student (funded by an AHRC Collaborative Doctorate Award), who spent a 12-month internship at Dove Cottage researching Wordsworth’s relationship with his neighbouring communities. d) Events As we anticipated, event attendances fell by 58% following the loss of National Portfolio Organisation funding. This had supported a full programme of poetry readings and other contemporary literature activities; we learned that it would be discontinued in 2014. We were nevertheless able to present readings

by Simon Armitage and Paul Muldoon, both well-attended. Although not reflected in our statistics, we were also pleased to host meetings of the Dove Cottage Poets, formerly part of our contemporary literature programme and now an autonomous writing group.

Our other events programmes continued, including literature classes on Milton, Shelley and Mary Shelley, reading group sessions, talks on a great variety of subjects, guided walks, and workshops on watercolour drawing and other creative activities. Our winter ‘Dove Cottage Tuesdays’ programme of intimate, fireside talks continued to grow in popularity, and we participated in national events such as the Big Draw, Black History Month, Heritage Open Days, International Children’s Book Day and Museums at Night.

New developments included Poetry Sundays

– a series of winter ‘pop-up’ poetry cafés – and ‘Letters From America’, which brought American speakers to audiences in Grasmere via live video link. In October we presented the seventh annual Wordsworth Lecture in association with the Institute of English Studies, University of London; the speaker was Professor Simon Bainbridge. e) Digital engagement Digital technology is becoming an increasingly valuable means of reaching our beneficiaries, and we report our activities here in more detail than previous years.

Interest in the ‘Wordsworth & Romanticism’ blog increased significantly, and the blog’s growing success was recognised when it was shortlisted for the Arts & Culture category of the UK Blog Awards. There were 40 new blog posts in 2015, each representing a substantial and generously donated piece of scholarship.

We also made further use of our Youtube and Vimeo channels to highlight various aspects of our work.

A major new initiative in 2015 was ‘William, Wordsworth: Poetry, People & Place’, a free 4-week online course developed in partnership with Lancaster University and presented via the Future Learn platform. The response and feedback exceeded all our expectations, and showed how technology and partnerships can bring our collection to a global audience. f) Other performance measures Research visits remained level with the previous year, and we continued to support scholarship at an international level by offering a free Reading Room service.

Numbers of volunteers also increased.

‘Volunteers’ are people helping visitors, cataloguing or doing other voluntary work on a regular basis or for sustained periods.

Other contributions, such as researching and giving talks, are excluded because record-keeping is impractical. Volunteers contributed 1,342 hours in 2015; this will be used as a comparator for future reporting.

3. Acknowledgements The activities reported here have been made possible with support from many generous institutions and individuals.

We are very grateful to our three funding partners, Arts Council England, South Lakeland District Council and Lancaster University, whose essential support underpinned all of our achievements in 2015. We also thank the Sir John Fisher Foundation and the Ernest Cook Charitable Trust for funding the key posts of Assistant Curator and Education Officer, the John R. Murray Charitable Trust for making a further commitment to our strategic plans, and the W.W. Spooner Charitable Trust for continuing to help us to develop our collection – the engine that drives all of our activities – and open it up for public enjoyment. Other generous support for our activities in 2015 and 2016 was received from the Michael Marks Charitable Trust, the Book Trust, the John Ellerman Foundation, the John S. Cohen Foundation, the Aspinwall Educational Trust, the Westmorland Arts Trust and the Cumbria

Community Foundation. Our many Patrons and Friends made vital contributions to our work, and we thank all those other people who make gifts of money, of items for the collection, and of books for resale in our shop, an important source of income.

2015 was an important year for fundraising.

326 supporters across the world donated over £300,000 to our endowment as we brought our ‘Catalyst’ fundraising campaign to a crescendo ahead of the 31 July deadline for claiming the Government’s match funding. We especially thank Ralph Fiennes, the late Felix Dennis, Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement, the Swire Charitable Trust, Professor Paul Betz, Sir Simon Robertson, the Foundation for Sport & the Arts, Patricia Grodd & Michael Stone, St John’s College, Cambridge, the Wyfold Trust and the Hintze Family Charitable Trust for generously investing in the Wordsworth Trust’s future; we also acknowledge the many other people who responded so readily to our appeal, and of course we thank Arts Council England for enabling us to benefit from the unique opportunity that ‘Catalyst’ presented. The Wordsworth Trust is in a much stronger position to meet the needs of its future beneficiaries as a result.

Michael McGregor The Robert Woof Director

Publication sales increased slightly, despite the drop in visitors. This was largely attributable to two new publications: the Wordsworth, War & Waterloo catalogue, with eight essays by contributors including Professor Paul Betz, Jenny Uglow and Pamela Woof; and Excursion to Wordsworthshire, an illustrated reproduction of a Victorian family’s travel journal acquired in 2014, generously funded by the W.W Spooner Charitable Trust and including a commentary and accompanying essay by Cecilia Powell.

Professional training figures comprise a mix of one-year paid traineeships, shorter-term paid internships (created through our involvement in the Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership and our ongoing association with Brigham Young University, Utah) and the 12-month internship completed by the Leeds University PhD student with funding from the AHRC Collaborative Doctorate Award scheme.

Michael McGregor, the Robert Woof Director, with Tony Harrison at the 2015 David Cohen Prize for Literature award ceremony, February

Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

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Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

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future plans

Our other specific objectives for 2016 include:

2016 will be a celebratory year: 27 July will mark the 125th anniversary of the first public tour of Dove Cottage in 1891.

2016 will also be a significant year for the Wordsworth Trust strategically, as we bring our ‘Reimagining Wordsworth’ project into its two-year development phase.

In 2016, we will also continue to work with our Cumbria Museum Consortium partners towards our collective Major Partner Museum aspirations:

a) Visitors

1.

mm

introducing free admission for 16s and under.

Our ultimate aim is to create new opportunities for people to discover how Wordsworth’s ideas and works can enhance their own lives and experiences. In 2016–17 we will appoint architects and other professional advisors to help us plan in detail our proposed new galleries, outdoor spaces and visitor facilities. We will talk to our existing audiences and representatives of potential new audiences about their needs and expectations; we will work with designers and learning consultants to help us find new ways of relating the exciting stories that Dove Cottage has to tell; and we will provide opportunities for people across Cumbria to research Wordsworth’s connections with their own local area, helping us to map Cumbria’s Wordsworthian associations in a new way. By the end of the development phase, we will have a new conservation plan for our collection and historic buildings, an activity plan to define how we will develop our activities for greater public benefit, and a business plan to help us become more financially resilient.

2. having leading artists, writers, academics wanting to work with us;

mm

creating new Museum displays on the theme of ‘Wordsworth Country’.

mm

supporting Grasmere’s efforts to boost tourism following December’s storms.

We will also launch a major fundraising campaign, to secure the matching funding needed before we submit our detailed plans to the Heritage Lottery Fund in a secondround application in January 2018.

10. attracting more diverse audiences;

Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

running innovative and inspiring programmes based on our collections;

3. being part of the strategic plans of national museums; 4. being recognised as integral to our local communities;

mm

5. being entrepreneurial and financially resilient; 6. being on an equal footing with the landscape in attracting visitors to Cumbria; 7. being recognised as digital pioneers of audience engagement, collections access & communications, and partnership working;

mm

mm

mm

11. leading the way, as dementia-friendly museums, in health and wellbeing for other cultural organisations.

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helping Cumbria County Council improve the A591 highway in Town End through its ‘Optimising Connectivity’ project.

b) Formal education

8. demonstrating the reach of our work through international partnerships; 9. engaging with every Cumbrian school pupil;

continuing our ‘Wordsworth Wednesdays’ broadcasts on Lakeland Radio, launched in 2015.

launching a two-year creative writing project for schools in deprived parts of west Cumbria.

d) Events mm

launching a new programme of guided walks and family activities in partnership with the Lake District National Park Authority.

mm

gaining a deeper understanding of our audiences using Quality Metrics, an Arts Council-supported evaluation framework.

e) Digital engagement mm

implementing the recommendations of an audit of our digital activities carried out in 2015, including a programme of staff training.

mm

working with the BBC and other partners to incorporate our collection catalogue into the Research and Education Space.

f) Other performance measures mm

hosting a series of short-term residencies for poets, supported by Arts Council England through a Clarissa Luard Award.

mm

publishing a collection of essays by the great 19th-century Wordsworth scholar, Professor William Knight.

developing our emerging relationship with the National Association of Teachers of English.

c) Outreach and community mm

increasing the number of visits to Dove Cottage generated by our outreach work, by tailoring activities to groups’ specific needs and interests.

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financial review

1. Summary Figures for 2014 have been restated following the adoption of the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (FRS102).

The net income for the year, including investment gains and losses, was £514,000 (2014: £156,000 net expenditure).

The culmination of the Catalyst Endowment campaign, supported by Arts Council England, resulted in a large increase in donations and legacies, increasing to £1,112,000 during the year (2014: £670,000).

Once again, falling visitor numbers have had an adverse impact on admissions and trading income. Investment and other income also both fell slightly.

In reaction to the reduction in visitor numbers, total expenditure was reduced by 10% to £1,427,000. Despite this, the Major Partner Museum grant enabled the employment of six trainees during the year which increased total salary costs to £752,000 (2014: £720,000).

Restricted funds fell by £106,000; expenditure within restricted funds includes £114,000 of depreciation on fixed assets that have been funded by donations received in prior years.

2. Investments The Wordsworth Trust owns several properties in the vicinity of Dove Cottage in Town End, Grasmere that are held as investment assets. The properties are let to a mix of staff and third parties, and rents are assessed against market rates. One property is a guest house and is let on a commercial lease. Rental income increased to £113,000 (2014: £105,000). The investment properties were revalued at the end of the year, generating an unrealised gain of £46,000.

The Wordsworth Trust has four discrete investment funds, which are managed

by Cazenove Capital Management; the Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

Development Fund, the R.S. Woof Memorial Fund, which permanently endows the post of the Robert Woof Director, the Catalyst Endowment Fund, and the Reserve Fund, which is held in the balance sheet as a current asset investment. There are no ethical restrictions on any of the funds under management.

3. Reserves

The Development Fund comprises both a permanent endowment and a designated element. The fund overall is invested on a total return basis and the managers have investment discretion to meet a target total return of CPI + 2%. Trustees plan to allocate at least £50,000 per year on a regular basis from the entire fund to income in order to aid planning. In 2015 they decided to allocate £65,000. At the end of 2015 the unapplied total return of the entire fund amounted to £246,000. Trustees would ideally like to increase the level of unapplied total return over time as they feel that a 12% buffer against a dramatic fall in market values is inadequate in current conditions.

Periodically the reserves policy is reviewed as part of the risk management process, and the Trustees have identified several main reasons for holding reserves:

The Wordsworth Trust maintains reserves to enable it to fulfil its charitable remit by providing for business continuity, security of the collection, and maintenance of the properties in circumstances where the revenue requirements may not be covered by short-term income. The reserves are managed to offer the best return while remaining relatively liquid to meet the Trust’s needs.

By the end of the year, against a backdrop of falling oil prices and an economic slowdown in China, the FTSE-100 had fallen 1.3% compared to January 2015 on a total return basis. By contrast, the Development Fund generated a total return of +2.2% against a target of 2.2% (CPI + 2%).

The smaller R.S. Woof Memorial Fund, which has a more defensive mandate, saw a 4.4% capital appreciation while generating a yield of 4.9% and the Catalyst Endowment Fund, which grew in size by over 400% because of donations, generated a yield of over £8,000 over the year. All of the Wordsworth Trust’s fixed asset investments are managed for the longer term, and Trustees remain confident that the long-term outlook remains favourable.

The Reserve Fund investments are held as current assets, which are available to support the operating cash flow should a short-term need arise. Rather than use low-return bank deposits, Trustees have decided to invest this surplus cash in a readily tradeable bond fund.

This fund generated a yield of 5% during the year and a small loss on revaluation of 1.7%.

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mm

To allow the financing of a controlled reduction in expenditure should extraordinary events beyond the Wordsworth Trust’s control generate a long-term reduction in income streams.

mm

To provide short-term support in circumstances where a temporary interruption to income means it is not appropriate to lose the skills and knowledge of the staff team or to curtail the programme of events.

mm

To accommodate the fact that many major events such as exhibitions and conferences are planned, and therefore expenditure is committed months if not years in advance while income from these events in terms of admissions is not received until after the event opens. This misalignment of income and expenditure is a main consideration in determining an adequate level of reserves.

mm

To anticipate potential site closure during the building phase of the Reimagining Wordsworth project, which would result in a loss of admissions income.

The level of reserves therefore varies depending on the specific circumstances and cannot be expressed as an exact figure. However after taking all of these factors into consideration, Trustees believe a free reserve (funds not tied to fixed assets, designated or restricted funds) of relatively liquid assets equivalent to the external income required to fund between three and six months’ budgeted expenditure is appropriate.

Year-end reserves remained relatively constant at £292,000 (2014: £296,000) and at just over three months’ budgeted expenditure, this remains within the range that Trustees believe acceptable.

Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

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Summary Group Accounts

Summary consolidated balance sheet

Figures are expressed as thousands Summary statement of financial activities for the year ended 31 December 2015.

As at 31 December 2015. Figures are expressed as thousands.

Unrestricted funds

Restricted funds

Endowment & development funds

Total funds

Income Donations and legacies

121

442

549

1,112

670

133

-

90

223

232

Admission fees & other income

577

-

-

577

588

Total income

831

Investment income

Total expenditure

Gains / (losses) on investment assets

Net income / (expenditure)

442

639

1,912

Unrestricted funds

Restricted, endowment & development funds

Total funds

2014 restated

Heritage assets

3,138

-

3,138

3,068

Other tangible assets

969

2,193

3,162

3,303

5,175

3,180

8,355

7,742

9,282

5,373

14,655

14,113

Net current assets

405

153

558

531

Creditors falling due after more than one year

(1,003)

-

(1,003)

(948)

Total net assets

8,684

5,526

14,210

13,696

2014 for comparison

Investments

1, 490

863

547

17

1,427

1,592

(32)

(105)

622

485

(102)

40

-

(11)

29

(54)

8

(105)

611

514

(156)

75

(1)

(74)

-

-

83

(106)

537

514

(156)

Transfers between funds

Net movement in funds

These summarised financial statements are a summary of information extracted from our statutory annual report and accounts. They may not contain sufficient information to allow for a full understanding of the financial affairs of the charity.

For further information, the full accounts, the auditors’ report on those accounts and the Trustees’ Annual Report should be consulted. Copies can be obtained from the Company Secretary, the Wordsworth Trust. Following the adoption of the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (FRS102), the 2014 comparative figures have been adjusted.

The annual accounts were approved on 11 May 2016 and have been delivered to the Charity Commission and the Registrar of Companies. They were audited by a qualified auditor, KPMG LLP, who gave an audit opinion that was unqualified and that did not include a statement required under section 498 of the Companies Act 2006.

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Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

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Supporters

With grateful thanks to all of the organisations and individuals listed below, and to all of our Friends and other supporters, for making everything that we do possible.

where the money came from Funding partners

29%

19% Admissions, events and courses

Charitable trusts, corporate donations, clubs & societies, individuals, and legacies

11% Shop and other trading Other major funders and donors in 2015*

6% Property rents 6%

29%

Institutions and individuals

Investments The Ithaca Trust The W.W. Spooner Charitable Trust Professor Paul Betz Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement The Swire Charitable Trust The John R. Murray Charitable Trust Mrs Mary Lovell The Michael Marks Charitable Trust The Sir John Fisher Foundation The Book Trust The Ernest Cook Charitable Trust The Foundation for Sport & the Arts Mr Lee Hall The John Ellerman Foundation The Stone/Grodd Family Foundation The Augusta Charitable Trust

Public sector funding

How it was spent 23% Custodianship

28% Cost of generating funds

49% Access & learning Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

Sir Christopher Hogg Mr & Mrs Richard Delbridge The Hintze Family Charitable Foundation St John’s College, Cambridge The Wyfold Charitable Trust Mr John Rowe Mr & Mrs John Spedding Dr William Zachs Sir Henry & Lady Brooke The Binks Trust Mr & Mrs Francis Cooke Mr Lewis Golden Mr & Mrs John Forsyth The Oldhurst Charitable Trust The Westmorland Arts Trust Professor James Butler Mrs Judith Egan Professor Stephen Gill Miss Veronica Finch Mr Tim Fulford Mrs Pamela Woof The Ashfield Trust The Captain E. Ramsden Charitable Trust Mrs Eileen Ainscough Mr & Mrs John Barker Professor Peter & Dr Jackie Bettess Mr Stephen Gorton Mr & Mrs Timothy Harding Mr & Mrs Peter Jubb Professor David McKitterick Mr John Nicoll Mr Charles Sebag-Montefiore Mrs Corinna Wiltshire Mr & Mrs Jim Stephenson Mr & Mrs David Alexander Mr & Mrs Trevor Smale Mark Samuels Lasner The Cowley Charitable Trust Mr & Mrs Tony Ball Sir Christopher & Lady Bland Mr Peter Brears Mr James Brockbank

Lady Chorley Sir Gerald & Lady Elliot Mr Stuart Fletcher Dr Bruce Graver Dr & Mrs Guest Mr Neil Hunter Mr & Mrs Piet de Jong Mr & Mrs David McCracken Dr & Mrs Adam Naylor Mr Anthony Seward Dr Lynn Shepherd Mrs Margaret Thorpe Mrs Vivian Turnbull Grasmere Village Society Mr & Mrs Tony Vaughan Dr Cecilia Powell Mr & Mrs Tim Sturgis Mr J.W. Grayston Elder and Sister Jones Mr Nicolas Barker Elizabeth Birkett Lord Miles Gladwyn Dr Anthony Harding Mr & Mrs Peter MacGowan Dr Nicholas Mason Sir Geoffrey & Lady Bindman Mrs Constance Parrish Professor Nicholas Roe Miss Delia Twamley Ms Jenny Uglow Mr Peter Urquhart Mr Kevin Wall Mr Ian Webb Mr Tim Robertson The Rt Hon the Lord Brooke CH PC Professor Angus Easson Mr & Mrs Richard Bronk Mr & Mrs Charles Woodhouse Professor Fred Burwick Mr Philip Jackson Dr Joshua King Professor Angus Easson Miss Ann Lambert The Bewick Society Dr & Mrs Timothy Cook Richard Martin & Yvonne Beaumont Mr Richard Arnold Mr & Mrs Peter Whyte Mr & Mrs Alan Taylor Dr & Mr D.M. Logie Mr & Mrs Airlie Holden-Hindley Mr Peter Quinn Mr Robin Smail Dr Heidi and Mr Christopher Snow Dr Michael Trenouth Mrs Eleanor Gorsuch Mr & Mrs Mark Phythian-Adams Professor R.K.R. Thornton Charles & Elizabeth Vyvyan Mr & Mrs Gerald Wiltshire Professor James Engell Miss Gillian Bate

Lantern-making workshop, October

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Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

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Mrs Hilary Bracefield Mr Kevin Fitzpatrick Professor Nicholas Halmi Mrs Patricia Hovey MBE Kathleen Jefferson BEM Miss Kate Rhodes Professor Fiona Stafford Miss Sarah Wilkes Miss Hilary Fell Professor John Kerrigan Mrs Diana Grant Mr & Mrs Laurence Harwood Mrs Joan Lagoe Mrs Susan Thornely DL Mr Steve Flux and Ms Vicky Flux Eleven anonymous donors * This list reflects grants and donations exceeding £100 received in the year 2015. Donations received since 1 January 2016 will be published at a future date.

We try hard to keep our lists up to date: please contact Mark Bains, Development Manager, using the details below if you find any inaccuracies.

Patrons of the Wordsworth Trust (since 1 January 2015) Mr & Mrs Tony Ambler Mrs Susan Axford Mr & Mrs John Barker Professor Peter & Dr Jackie Bettess Professor Paul Betz & Carol Rosen Lady Bindman Dr Gordon Bottomley Sir John & Lady Boyd Sir Henry Brooke The Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry KBE Mrs Mary Chuck Mr & Mrs John Collier Mr & Mrs Nicholas Coulson Mrs Diana Delbridge Professor & Mrs Philip Edwards Lord & Lady Egremont Sir Gerald & Lady Elliot

Miss Veronica Finch Mr & Mrs John Forsyth Mr Lewis Golden OBE JP FCA Mr Lee Hall & the Baroness Kidron OBE Mr David Heal Mr & Mrs Piet de Jong Mr & Mrs Peter Jubb Mrs Linda Kelly FRSL Mrs Diana Matthews Dr & Mrs Adam Naylor Professor Lucy Newlyn Mr John Nicoll Ms Deborah Pfuntner Dr Cecilia & Mr Nicholas Powell Sir Simon Manwaring Robertson KT Dr John Martin Robinson DPhil DLitt FSA Mr Charles Sebag-Montefiore FSA Mrs Harriette Smale The Rt Hon Lord Smith of

Finsbury PC Mr Harry Williamson FCSI Mrs Corinna Wiltshire Mr & Mrs Charles Woodhouse

Legacies With grateful thanks to those generous individuals from whom we received bequests in 2015.

The late Mr Felix Dennis The late Mr Eric M. Bottomley The late Mr Geoffrey Blake Thousands of people benefit from the financial support that we receive.

Please contact us to discuss how you or your grant-making trust could make a difference.

Mark Bains, Development Manager: 015394 63515; m.bains@wordsworth.org.uk.

Royal Patron

Public events and activities in 2015

HRH the Prince of Wales

* Free event

President Mrs Pamela Woof FRSL

Events and activities in Grasmere

Fellows The title of ‘Fellow’ is used to recognise individuals who have made a significant contribution to the Wordsworth Trust, for example as trustees, longstanding supporters or advocates. Fellows are not involved in our governance, but they are important and valuable ambassadors for our work.

Sir Eric Anderson FRSE Mr Iain Bain FSA Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC Sir John Boyd KCMG The Rt Hon the Lord Bragg The Rt Hon Sir Henry Brooke CMG The Rt Hon the Lord Brooke CH PC Mr Michael Broughton Dr David Cohen CBE Mr Stewart Douglas-Mann Professor Stephen Gill Mr Lewis Golden OBE JP FCA The Rt Hon the Earl of Gowrie PC Mr Tony Harrison Mr Laurence Harwood OBE, FRICS Mr Peter Jubb Mrs Linda Kelly FRSL Professor John Kerrigan Professor Grevel Lindop Sir Ian McKellen CH CBE Professor David McKitterick FBA, D LITT Dr Lucasta Miller Mr John Murdoch Mr John Murray Mrs Virginia Murray The Lady Rupert Nevill Mr Charles Nugent Dr Cecilia Powell FSA Mr John Spedding CBE DL Mr Tim Sturgis Ms Claire Tomalin FRSL Dr David Wilson FCIS FSA

6 January, and on 3 February, 3 March, 1 April and 1 December

Discussion group: The Evening Star Poetry Group 11 January Talk: The Growth of Grasmere Village (Grasmere History Group) 12 January, and on 9 February, 2 March and 30 March Literature class: Shelley and Mary Shelley (Pamela Woof) 3 February Reading group: Philip Larkin (Esther Rutter) 3 February Talk: Dorothy’s Vagrants (Marian Veevers) 4 February Reading group: Byron’s Satirical Verse on the Lake Poets (Catherine Kay) 10 February Talk: A Cumbrian Crack (Keith Coates) 14 February Talk: ‘I read, and loved the books in which I read’ (Paul Betz, Geoffrey Bindman, Stephen Gill and Edwin Lewis) 21 February* The Jonathan Wordsworth Memorial Lecture: Wordsworthian Romance: Into a Dazzling Cavern (Frederick Burwick) 25 February Talk: For the Love of Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journal (Penny Hemmingway, Caro Heyworth and Barbara Tonge) 21 March Talk: The Power of the Hills: 250 Years of Guides to the Lakes (various speakers) (various speakers) 1 April, and on 8 April, 27 May, 29 July, 5 August, 12 August and 2 September Family event: Wild Walks on Wednesdays

''Wordsworth Goes To Furness': the Square Café, Broughton-in-Furness, September

Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

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Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

2 April Family event: International Children’s Book Day 7 April Poetry reading: Pop-up Birthday Celebrations 11 April, and on 12 May, 9 June, 14 July, 11 August, 8 September and 13 October Discussion group: The Stepping Westward Poetry Group 18 April Talk: The Convention of Cintra (Charles Vyvyan) 28 April Talk: Wordsworth, Nature Writing, and the Invention of National Parks (Paul Westover) 5 May Poetry reading: Paul Muldoon 9 May Talk: The Long Road to Waterloo (Jenny Uglow) 16 May* Poetry reading and book launch: The Poetry Business Book and Pamphlet Competition, 2014–15 (Ann and Peter Sansom, plus guest readers) 26 May Talk: William Wordsworth, Contemporary Philosopher (Evan Gottlieb)

19 June (Adult Learners Week) Talk: Museum Education 23 June Talk: Reading Wordsworth in the Tar Sands (Stephen Collis) 30 June Poetry reading: Simon Armitage 12 July Talks in Memory of Mary Burkett: J.M.W. Turner, James Gillray and Sir George Beaumont (Amy Concannon, Donald Coverdale and Dean Hines) 21 July Family event: Napoleonic Hats 23 July, and on 30 July, 13 August, 27 August and 29 October Family event: Rucksack of Rhymes 25 July* The Thelwall Lecture: John Thelwall and the Art of Toasting (Ian Newman) 28 July Family event: Cannons 1 August Family event: Dorothy Wordsworth 4 August Workshop: Print-Making 11 August Family event: Mask-Making and Caricatures

27 May, and on 24 June, 29 July, 26 August and 30 September Family event: Tales for Tots

18 August Guided walk: Gardeners Delight

28 May Family event: May Traditions

25 August Family event: Waterloo Watercolours

15 June (Adult Learners Week) Talk: Preventative Conservation

11 and 12 September* Heritage Open Days event: Treasures of the Wordsworth Trust (Wordsworth Trust staff)

16 June (Adult Learners Week) Talk: Research and Enquiries 17 June (Adult Learners Week) Talk: Community outreach 18 June (Adult Learners Week) Talk: Writing Exhibition Text

13 October* Talk: William, Wordsworth: Poetry, People & Place (Simon Bainbridge and Jeff Cowton, in connection with the Future Learn online course)

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Public events and activities in other locations 13 January–5 October* Talks in Bassenthwaite, Brough, Gosforth, Hayton, Keswick, Lamplugh, Port Carlisle, Penrith and Santon Bridge: Dorothy Wordsworth (Susan Allen) 31 January Family event, Victoria Gallery, Liverpool: Dorothy’s Treasures 7 February–10 April Family events in Ambleside, Applebyin-Westmorland, Barrow-in-Furness, Dalton-in-Furness, Grange-over-Sands, Kendal, Kirkby Stephen, Penrith, Shap, Whitehaven, Windermere and Workington: Love Books!

7 February* Talk, Victoria Gallery, Liverpool: Dorothy Wordsworth through her Manuscripts (Jeff Cowton) 19 February Family event, Victoria Gallery, Liverpool: Living Letters 27 March–10 April Family events in Ambleside, Barrowin-Furness, Dalton-in-Furness, Grange-over-Sands, Kendal, Millom, Newby Bridge, Ulverston, Wigton and Windermere: Easter Traditions

Clay-making workshop with Beetham Primary School, June

20 October* Discussion group: The Wordsworths, Abolition and Black History: Campaigning Then, Campaigning Now

Lost: Its Pleasures For Us Now (Pamela Woof)

Wordsworth and Wainwright (Peter Johnson)

27 and 29 October Family event: The Big Draw: Quirky Caricatures (Colin Shelbourn)

14 November Community event: Shepherds to Chara-bancs: Changing Life in Grasmere, 1800–1900 (members of the Grasmere History Group)

21 December Family event: Swag and PomanderMaking

30 October Family event: Lantern-Making

28 November Family event: Christmas Crafts

30 October Family event: Twilight Tales in Dove Cottage

1 December Reading Group: Wordsworth and Heaney: Childhood, the Poet and the Natural World (Bronagh Gallagher)

3, 10, 17 and 24 November* Talk: The People and Places of Wordsworth’s Grasmere Poems (Anna Fleming)

1 December Talk: Warnscale: A Land Mark Walk (Louise Ann Wilson)

7 November Talk: Paradise Lost and The Prelude: Some Connections (Pamela Woof)

8 December Talk: Wordsworth’s Grasmere Family (Alexandra Baker)

11 November, and 9 December Literature class: Discovering Paradise

15 December Reading Group: Wanderings with

Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

24 April and 13 November* Community event: Wordsworth Goes West (Maryport)

30 July, 29 August, 30 August and 11 September Family / community activities at Ambleside Sports, Grasmere Sports, the Westmorland County Show and the Windermere Weekender: Shepherds and Sheep

11 May* Community activities: Pop-up Poetry (Kendal)

11 September* Community event: Wordsworth Goes West (Broughton-in-Furness)

21 May, 2 June and 8 June* Talks, Cockermouth and Seascale: William & Dorothy Wordsworth (Susan Allen)

15 October* The Wordsworth Lecture, Senate House, London: Wordsworth, War & Waterloo (Simon Bainbridge)

26–29 May Family events in Ambleside, Dalton-inFurness, Grange-over-Sands, Kendal, Ulverston and Windermere: May Traditions

19 November* Talk, Kendal: Wordsworth in Cumbria (Jeff Cowton)

21 April* Talk, Workington: Life and Times at Dove Cottage (Susan Allen)

20 July–28 August Family events in Ambleside, Barrowin-Furness, Cockermouth, Dalton-inFurness, Kendal, Keswick, Maryport, Ulverston, Wigton and Windermere: Heroes & Villains

24 November The Michael Marks Poetry Pamphlet Awards, the British Library, London

27 July–14 September Family events in Ambleside, Dalton-inFurness, Grange-over-Sands, Kendal, Penrith, Ulverston and Windermere: Rucksack of Rhymes

29, 30 and 31 December Family event: Rushbearing

Poet John Cooper Clarke visits the Jerwood Centre, April

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Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

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other ways to help

Governance and Management (current as of April 2016)

Become a Friend

Spread the word!

Feel part of it all by becoming a Friend of the Wordsworth Trust. You will receive a quarterly newsletter, invitations to exclusive behind-the-scenes events, free parking and unlimited free entry to Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum. You can also secure your place at events before they sell out, and get a discount on selected Wordsworth Trust publications.

The Annual Review is an important advocacy document for the Wordsworth Trust, and we hope that you enjoy reading it. We use it to keep our donors, funders and other supporters up to date, and to introduce our work to those who are new to it. It can also be downloaded from our website.

Becoming a Friend costs £25 a year. Joint, family and young people’s rates are also available.

Help us to meet the costs of designing and printing the Annual Review, and your support will be prominently acknowledged.

Please also tell us if you know someone who you think might like to receive a copy.

Become a Patron

Make a difference

By becoming a Patron, you will make your own personal contribution to the preservation of Wordsworth’s ‘calmest, fairest spot of earth’. You will receive invitations to exhibition openings, private lunches and exclusive events in the Lake District and London. You will also receive all the advantages of being a Friend.

Thousands of people benefit from Wordsworth Trust projects that are funded by grants. Contact us to discuss how your business or charitable trust might make a difference.

Trustees

Curatorial & Learning

Finance

The Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury PC (Chairman) Mr John Collier FCA (Treasurer) Mrs Mary Chuck Ms Judith Cooke Mr David Heal Mrs Diana Matthews DL, JP Dr Lucy Peltz Professor Seamus Perry Professor Nicholas Roe FEA FRSE Professor Fiona Sampson FRSL Mr Charles SebagMontefiore FSA Dr Lynn Shepherd Ms Jenny Uglow OBE

Curator* Jeff Cowton MBE

Finance & Operations Director*Adrian Cowl

Director’s Office

Speak to Mark Bains, Development Manager on 015394 63520.

The Robert Woof Director* Michael McGregor

Education Development Manager Zoë McLain Visitor Experience Manager Jane Affleck Deputy Visitor Experience Manager John Coombe

Marketing & Communications Assistant Emily Burnham

Education Officer Catherine Kay

Fundraising

Community Outreach Officer Susan Allen

Development Manager* Mark Bains

Short Courses & Events Co-ordinator Alice Carthy

Development Officer (Donations) Hannah Stratton

Assistant to the Curator Melissa Mitchell

Patrons pay an annual subscription of £500.

PA to the Director Catherine Harland

Leave a legacy

Dove Cottage & Estate

Shop

Senior Guide Hazel Clarke Guides Peter Coward, Sue Coward, Anne Duffield, Sally Hall, Nancy Martin, Marian Veevers, Janice Wilson Estate Manager Stephen Sharp Estate Workers Peter Foster, Mark Ward

Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

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Marketing & Communications Manager* Paul Kleian

Assistant Curator Rebecca Turner

Visitor Experience Assistants (seasonal) Ruth Eastwood, Phil Hilborne, Marlien Meilczarek

Ever since the family manuscripts were received by bequest from Wordsworth’s grandchildren in 1935, legacies have helped to make the Wordsworth Trust ‘the finest literary museum in the world’. By remembering the Wordsworth Trust in your will, you too can help bring art and literature alive for generations to come. Contact us for an informal discussion.

Marketing & Communications

Commercial Manager Alison Magrath Retail Manager Pamela Bissland Online Manager Michael Mitchell Retail Supervisor Dean Hines Retail Assistant Joanne Kingdom

Wordsworth Trust /// Annual Review 2015

Trainees Mathew Britten Charlotte Davies Simon Davies Madeleine Goodall Camilla Taylor Sophie Yaniw

Interns Carol Allred

Regular volunteers Kay Adkins Barbara Crossley Jane Lee Jay Slater Jessica Sneddon

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… but no where else is found— No where (or is it fancy?) can be found— The one sensation that is here; ’tis here, Here as it found its way into my heart In childhood, here as it abides by day, By night, here only; or in chosen minds That take it with them hence, where’er they go. ’Tis (but I cannot name it) ’tis the sense Of majesty, and beauty, and repose, A blended holiness of earth and sky, Something that makes this individual Spot, This small abiding-place of many men, A termination, and a last retreat, A Centre, come from wheresoe’er you will, A whole without dependence or defect, Made for itself, and happy in its itself, Perfect Contentment, Unity Entire.

William Wordsworth, ‘Home at Grasmere’, 1800 (lines 104 – 170).

The Wordsworth Trust Sharing Inspiration from the past, for the future

Dove Cottage, Grasmere, Cumbria, LA22 9SH Telephone: 015394 35544 Email: enquiries@wordsworth.org.uk Registered charity 1066184 Registered company 3442086 Find us on social media

www.wordsworth.org.uk