The poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy lived at Alfoxton House between July 1797 and June 1798, during the time of their friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.[2] Dorothy began her journals here in January 1798 but discontinued them 2 months later to recommence when the couple moved to the Lake District.[3] These were posthumously published as The Alfoxden Journal, 1798 and The Grasmere Journals, 1800-1803.
The building was refenestrated and re-roofed in the 19th century. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.[3] During World War II it housed evacuees from Wellington House Preparatory School at Westgate-on-Sea in Kent.[4] After use as a country hotel followed by a period of disuse, the house was sold in January 2018.[5] It was again for sale (with 50 acres) in July 2018,[6] and in 2020 purchased for about £2 million by the Alfoxton Park Trust for use by the Triratna Buddhist Community.[7]
Building
Alfoxton House was built in the 18th century of rendered rubble stone, the main block being on a double-pile plan, i.e. two main rooms on each side of a central corridor. The house is two storeys high, with an attic that includes dormer windows. The frontage includes a central porch with columns, frieze and cornice in a Doric style. There is an extension to the left, originally an orangery, with a steep roof over a verandah. The wall includes the coat of arms of the St Albyn family who owned the house for many years.[3]
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