Help shape the future of Blake Cottage

Community activity archive

William Blake, Illustrations of the Book of Job (detail). Source: William Blake Archive →

Creativity, learning and practical care

Selected moments from the Trust’s community programme, with the most recent first. From school projects and public events to hands-on volunteering, local people and supporters further afield are helping bring the cottage back to life.Full community engagement record → · Back to News & community →

September 2026 · Heritage Open Days

Visitors went behind the scenes of the restoration during two oversubscribed open days, exploring the cottage with heritage specialists Nick Tyson and Joe Thompson.

Pictured: Nick Tyson leading a Heritage Open Day tour, September 2025. Photograph © The Blake Cottage Trust.

Nick Tyson, in a red hard hat, explaining the cottage restoration to visitors during the Heritage Open Day on 16 September 2025.

September 2026 · Volunteers making a difference

Amazon volunteers spent two days clearing the garden and cottage rooms, organised by ambassador Delia Ryan and works supervisor Menche. Their practical work sits alongside the continuing care of Felpham’s “Heavy Gang”, whose help includes site clearance and removing water-ballast tanks for reuse at local allotments.

Pictured: Amazon volunteers at Blake Cottage. Photograph © The Blake Cottage Trust.

Amazon volunteers outside Blake Cottage, September 2026.

Summer 2026 · Imagining the cottage garden

More than 200 children aged 9–11 from five local primary schools entered the garden design competition organised by trustee Suzy Lloyd. Inspired by Blake’s love of nature and Auguries of Innocence, they created garden designs and rhyming couplets.

First prize went to Wren Waller, second to Bella Abdo and third to Pippa Asker. The first two designs are shown below; Pippa’s design was praised for its vibrant planting and a bug hotel celebrating the often-overlooked world of insects.

Pupil’s design for the cottage garden, showing a bench, trees and a winding path. Image © The Blake Cottage Trust.

First prize · Wren Waller

Wren’s design leads the visitor through rich planting and winding stepping stones to a sheltered bench. Artwork: Wren Waller

Bella Abdo’s second-prize garden design, with a stone path, pond, tree swing and leafy archway.

Second prize · Bella Abdo

Bella’s garden has a stone path, a pond, a tree swing and a leafy archway. Her couplet reads: “Bloom where you are planted, this garden is enchanted.” The judges praised its sense of nature’s magic. Artwork: Bella Abdo

29 July 2026 · Discovering the trial records

Doug Nicholls, Sarah Parker and ambassador Liz Thiel visited the West Sussex Record Office with Barry Smith of the South Downs Poetry Festival to examine original documents from Blake’s 1804 sedition trial.

Pictured: examining the Blake collection at West Sussex Record Office, 29 July 2026. Photograph shared by Doug Nicholls.

Three visitors examining William Blake books and archival documents laid out on a table at West Sussex Record Office, 29 July 2026.

Spring–summer 2026 · Building a library for Blake

Dr Keri Davies donated his collection of over 600 Blake-related books. Volunteers transported the collection to Bognor Regis and began cataloguing it, led by trustee Irene Campbell, as a foundation for future public learning and research.

From March 2026 · Hotham Park Subway murals

Young people from the 39 Youth Club worked with the Trust and Artswork on Blake-inspired designs for Project 39. The project transformed the subway beneath Hotham Way in Bognor Regis with over 70 metres of youth-led artwork.

Pictured: Blake’s “grain of sand” verse, a growing-flower mural and the underpass entrance.

Hotham Park Subway mural quoting Blake: “To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower; hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.”

Hotham Park Subway mural showing a pink flower growing from a bulb, with roots below the soil.

Entrance to the Hotham Park Subway, decorated with colourful Project 39 lettering and Blake-inspired murals.

December 2025 · Students interview a heritage specialist

Year 12 students from St Philip Howard Catholic School interviewed Nick Tyson about restoring the cottage. Their film gives young people a direct role in explaining the building’s history and the conservation work.

Published on YouTube · 21 December 2025

Interview: Jack George and Eloise Jarman. Filming and production: Alicia Shute and Violet Newman.

3 December 2025 · Poetry at Bognor Regis Library

A celebration brought entrants and supporters together for readings and prizes after a competition attracting 32 entries, including one from Norway. Irene Campbell organised the event, with Simon Brett as master of ceremonies and readings by actor Jean Rogers. Around 40 people attended.Read the winning poems →

September 2025 · Open doors and BlakeFest

The first Heritage Open Days tours introduced visitors to the newly restored roof and archaeological discoveries with Nick Tyson. Later that month, BlakeFest brought theatre, a guided village walk, music, storytelling and workshops to Felpham and Bognor Regis, working with the South Downs Poetry Festival and the Big Blake Project.

Summer–autumn 2024 · Listening to local people

The new board began public consultation at Felpham Fete on 6 July, followed by Music in the Park, “Fun on the Prom” on 31 August and an online survey. A public meeting on 19 September brought residents together at Felpham Community College to discuss the cottage’s future.

The online survey received 119 responses; 77 engagements were recorded at Fun on the Prom and 61 members of the public attended the September meeting. This early listening informed the Trust’s audience development work.