Introduction
Features of John Clare's Cottage include hanging baskets, low growing climbers and a dovecote.
There is a dovecote on the north side of the property, the last of three that existed when the whole of the village was purchased by the Fitzwilliams under Elizabeth I. Today the cottage is adorned by fine hanging baskets and low growing climbers. Between 1824-25 Clare kept a journal in which he made several references to his garden-what plants flowered, trees that grew there, cuttings he collected from the wild and established and also plants and seeds given to him.
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- History
The poet John Clare was born in 1793 in a small stone-built thatched cottage along the road to Ailsworth. In 1811 he moved from Woodcroft Castle to Burghley House as a gardener's boy.
- Features & Designations
Features
- Dovecote
- Earliest Date:
- Latest Date:
- Cottage (featured building)
- Latest Date:
- Key Information
Type
Garden
Purpose
Ornamental
Principal Building
Domestic / Residential
Survival
Extant
Civil Parish
Helpston
- References
Contributors
Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust