Exhibition - Wightwick: A House of Books

Wightwick Manor invites you to explore a home steeped in the love of reading and writing.

Generations of the Mander family were passionate collectors and readers, filling their home with volumes that reflected their wide-ranging interests, from art and politics to poetry and local history. But the Manders were not only readers, many they were also writers. As you move through the house, you will discover the personal stories behind their literary lives.

Some of the earliest items acquired for Wightwick, after it was given to the National Trust in 1937, were Kelmscott Press books and the original designs for them. They were the work of William Morris, the founding Father of the Arts & Crafts movement, many with illustrations by his close friend and collaborator, the artist Edward Burne-Jones. These were collected by Sir Geoffrey Mander, whose friendship with Sir Sydney Cockerell, Morris’s private secretary, gave him unique access to these treasures.

You can explore this remarkable collection in the Daisy Room, where an exhibition brings together the Kelmscott Presses beautifully crafted volumes alongside books from some of the private presses it inspired.

It’s a celebration not just of books, but of the people who made them, loved them, and lived by them.