William Blake in Felpham
The poet's cottage and his years by the sea
William Blake, the visionary poet, painter and printmaker, lived in Felpham from 1800 to 1803. His time in the village was one of the most significant periods of his creative life, and the cottage where he lived still stands on Blake's Road, a tangible connection between one of the greatest figures in English art and this quiet Sussex village by the sea.
Blake came to Felpham at the invitation of William Hayley, a poet and biographer who lived in the village and who commissioned Blake to engrave illustrations for his publications. Blake, his wife Catherine and their household moved from London to a cottage that is now known as Blake's Cottage. The move was, in many ways, an escape from the city and an attempt to find a more peaceful setting for creative work.
The Felpham years were productive and troubled in roughly equal measure. Blake wrote some of his most important works during this period, including sections of Milton and Jerusalem, the long prophetic poems that contain some of his most celebrated lines. The famous hymn Jerusalem, with its opening words about England's green and pleasant land, draws on imagery and feelings that were shaped by Blake's experience of the Sussex landscape and coastline.
Blake's response to the natural beauty of Felpham was intense and genuinely moved. He wrote letters describing the village, the sea, the light and the countryside in terms that mixed practical observation with visionary ecstasy. The wide skies, the sound of the waves and the sense of space after the cramped streets of London clearly affected him deeply. His art and poetry during this period show a renewed engagement with the natural world and with the spiritual meanings he found within it.
The troubles came primarily from Blake's relationship with Hayley, which deteriorated from mutual respect to frustration and resentment. Blake felt that Hayley's commercial commissions distracted him from his true artistic calling, while Hayley felt that Blake was ungrateful and impractical. The relationship ended badly, and Blake eventually returned to London, where he spent the rest of his life.
Before leaving Felpham, Blake was involved in a dramatic incident that led to a trial for sedition. A soldier named John Schofield accused Blake of making treasonous statements in the garden of the cottage. Blake was tried at Chichester in 1804 and acquitted, but the experience shook him and contributed to his decision to leave Sussex.
Blake's Cottage still stands on Blake's Road in Felpham, a modest thatched building that looks much as it would have in Blake's time. The cottage is Grade II listed and has been the subject of preservation efforts by the Blake Society and other organisations. It is not routinely open to the public, though the exterior can be viewed from the road and occasional open days and events provide access to the interior.
Felpham commemorates its famous resident through the street name, through local awareness and through occasional events and exhibitions. The Blake connection gives the village a cultural significance that extends well beyond its physical boundaries, linking this stretch of Sussex coast to one of the most original and important artists in English history.