Octavia Hill Birthplace House is a museum located the South Brink, of Wisbech, Cambridgeshire England. It is an independent museum and a Grade II* listed building.
The house was once owned by the Hill family.
The most known owner was the nonconformist James Hill (c.1800–1871), banker, corn merchant and Owenite social utopian. James Hill's third wife, Caroline Southwood Hill (1809–1902), writer and educationist, daughter of Dr Thomas Southwood Smith. The most well known resident, until the age of two was Octavia Hill after whom the museum is now named. [1] The Octavia Hill Society was established in 1992 and one aim was to create a museum to collect, exhibit, preserve, interpret and document materials that reflect her work and to act as a focal centre for the Society in her birthplace town.
After the Hill family moved out the building was divided and sold, remaining divided until the museum reunited the parts. Peter Clayton MBE was instrumental in establishing this museum. There are two blue plaques on the building, one was place on the left hand of the museum and the second added after the final part was purchased. The first plaque marks Octavia's role as a cofounder of the National Trust and the second as a pioneer of the Army Cadet Force. An upper floor was used to create the ACF National Museum.
The museum holds an extensive library of books connected with Octavia and her family. There also items both old and new celebrating her work. [2]
Wisbech is a market town, inland port and civil parish in the Fenland district in Cambridgeshire, England. In 2011 it had a population of 31,573. The town lies in the far north-east of Cambridgeshire, bordering Norfolk and only 5 miles (8 km) south of Lincolnshire. The tidal River Nene running through the town is spanned by two road bridges. Wisbech is in the Isle of Ely and has been described as "the Capital of The Fens".
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Thomas Southwood Smith was an English physician and sanitary reformer.
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Octavia Hill was an English social reformer and a founder of the National Trust. Her main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Born into a family of radical thinkers and reformers with a strong commitment to alleviating poverty, she herself grew up in straitened circumstances owing to the financial failure of her father's businesses. Home educated by her mother, she worked from the age of 14 for the welfare of working people.
Ishbel Maria Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, was a British writer, philanthropist, and an advocate of women's interests. As the wife of John Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, she was viceregal consort of Canada from 1893 to 1898 and of Ireland from 1906 to 1915.
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Caroline Southwood Hill was an English educationalist and writer. In 1837 she established and ran a Pestalozzian infant school in Wisbech; the building now survives as part of the Angles Theatre. She was involved in many co-operative ventures, and moved in a radical circle of other reformers. She wrote three children's books and contributed works to a range of publications such as The Nineteenth Century and Charles Dickens's Household Words.