William Blake Arrives in Felpham

September 1800

In September 1800, the poet, painter, and visionary William Blake moved from London to a cottage in Felpham, at the invitation of his patron William Hayley. Blake and his wife Catherine lived in the flint cottage on what is now Blake's Road for three years. During this period, Blake worked on illustrations for Hayley's publications and produced some of his own most celebrated writings, including parts of the long prophetic poems Milton and Jerusalem. Blake declared Felpham to be 'the sweetest spot on earth' and wrote in his letters that the village was the gateway to heaven. His time in the Sussex countryside, away from the grime and pressures of London, produced an intense period of visionary experience and creative output. The cottage stands today, a Grade II* listed building managed by the Blake Society. Blake's Felpham years were not without difficulty, however. His relationship with Hayley became strained as Blake chafed under the patron's commercial demands, and in 1803 an incident with a soldier named John Scofield in his garden would lead to a charge of sedition. But the Felpham period remains one of the most significant episodes in English literary history, producing poetry that shaped the Romantic movement and gave the nation the words to 'Jerusalem', later set to music by Hubert Parry.