#159: Blackwell – Arts & Crafts in Lakeland

...in which we head south over a snowy Dunmail Raise to immerse ourselves in the world of Arts and Crafts at Blackwell.

In the company of Niall Hodson, Keeper of Collections at Lakeland Arts, we start our conversation taking a long view over wintry Windermere and the context in which the Arts & Crafts movement emerged – the rise of mass production in the Victorian age.

Paying homage to John Ruskin – over the hill in Coniston – we consider the polymath visionary’s founding contribution to a movement that encompassed social justice, art and architecture, and the impact of his iconic treatise The Stones of Venice that called for traditional craftsmanship, simplicity and the use of natural materials in everything from furniture to buildings.

Entering Blackwell, we are immersed in the movement made real, with immaculately detailed stonework, wood carvings, floor tiles, stained glass and wallpaper showcasing the creative talents of dozens of local craftspeople, all designed into a coherent rural retreat for the wealthy Holt family of Manchester.

Wandering through room after enchanting room, we meet two more key figures whose lives are intertwined with the house: William Morris – the revolutionary designer, craftsman, social activist, and founder of Morris & Co – and Blackwell architect Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott, whose extraordinary vision gave rise to one of Lakeland’s finest, and most eccentric, houses.

In divers quickfire ramblings that take in pubs, breweries and stag do’s, we proceed into Blackwell’s recent past, and its second life as an evacuees’ boarding school, before closing by considering the legacy of one of the country’s most important arts movements – as relevant as ever in the age of AI.

• Blackwell is open from now until 31 March: Monday – Saturday 10am – 4pm, then 1 April – 31 October: Monday to Saturday 10am – 5pm. The house is currently exhibiting 'Frances Priest Motif | Line | Colour' until 11 April, 2026. Explore the ceramic work of celebrated Edinburgh-based artist Frances Priest in an exhibition tracing 25 years of her artistic work.

• More about Blackwell can be found at: lakelandarts.org.uk/blackwell/

Blackwell, in the snow.

Mark in the 'White Drawing Room', with our guest for the day, Niall Hodson.

Summer's day at Blackwell. Photo (c) Robin Zahler.

The remarkable main hall. Photo (c) Lakeland Arts.

The main hall during the Hunt years – note the Victorian furniture, billiard table and stags' antlers. Photo (c) Lakeland Arts.

Another image of the main hall, circa 1905, with inglenook fireplace (left), piano (right) and more wall-mounted heads. Photo (c) Lakeland Arts.

And a later iteration again: Blackwell as an evacuees' school, and exercise classes in the main hall. Photo (c) Lakeland Arts.

Beautiful internal wood panels. Photo: (c) Hotfoot-7.

Fireplace in the White Drawing Room. Baillie Scott believed in building furniture – like the shelves and fireside seats – into the house. Photo (c) Robin Zahler.

Classes in the White Drawing Room. Photo (c) Lakeland Arts.

Edward Holt's son Joseph at Blackwell around 1905. Photo (c) Lakeland Arts.

Skating in the courtyard in the 1940s. Photo (c) Lakeland Arts.