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A former home of romantic poet William Wordsworth Alfoxton Park Hotel, in Holford Somerset, has been \u2018saved\u2019 after a Buddhist charity bought it for \u00a31.4m<\/h3>\nA former home of romantic poet William Wordsworth Alfoxton Park Hotel, in Holford Somerset, has been \u2018saved\u2019 after a Buddhist charity bought it for \u00a31.4m<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The BBC writes:<\/p>\n
Alfoxton Park Hotel, in Holford, Somerset, was home to the writer and his sister Dorothy for a year in 1797.<\/p>\n
The country house – which\u00a0appears on Historic England’s at-risk register<\/a>\u00a0– is where Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge created their joint masterpiece Lyrical Ballads.<\/p>\n It will be renovated and reopened as a base for Buddhist meditation retreats.<\/p>\n Dharmachari Lokabandhu, trustee of charity the Alfoxton Park Trust, said: “We are delighted to have been entrusted with the guardianship of this beautiful and historic building.<\/p>\n “We are very aware of its importance and place in Britain’s literary heritage and fully intend to honour that going forwards.<\/p>\n “Once the building has been restored to at least something of its former glory, we’d love to welcome poets, pilgrims and lovers of nature – many of whom already pass by as they walk the Coleridge Way, which runs right past our back door.”<\/p>\n The building, once used as a hotel, had fallen into disrepair.<\/p>\n In 2010, West Somerset Council issued an enforcement notice ordering a property developer\u00a0to stop housing Polish workers in the “run-down” property<\/a>.<\/p>\n According Adam Nicolson’s book, The Making of Poetry: Coleridge, the Wordsworths and Their Year of Marvels, the original house, The Manor of Alfoxton, was destroyed in a fire but was rebuilt in 1710.<\/p>\n The estate was the scene of the first reading of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner and housed American troops during World War Two.<\/p>\n Stephen Champion, director at property experts Christie & Co, said: “We are delighted to see the building saved by its new owners, who plan to restore the property.\u201d<\/p>\n It is hoped the main building will be open for retreats from August 2021.<\/p>\n