John Clare's Home

All clear for poet Clare's museum to be developed.

PEOPLE’S POET: John Clare’s cottage in Helpston.




A £1.3 million scheme to turn the home of poet John Clare into a tourist attraction has been given the green light.

The 16th-century cottage and dovecote in Helpston, near Peterborough, will be converted into the John Clare Heritage Centre.Visitors are expected to flock to Helpston from across the world, along with coach parties of schoolchildren.

The existing cottage will be turned into a time capsule depicting rural life in the 18th and 19th centuries.Additions made in the 20th century will be ripped out and concrete floors will be replaced by traditional stock brick and stone flag floors.A new annexe will be constructed behind the historic cottage, which will include a refreshment area, toilets, a cloakroom and manager and warden’s lodgings.An 18th-century-style garden will boast authentic tools, a hen coop, bees, rabbits, a mini-orchard and a herb and medicinal garden.

The work received the go-ahead this week after planning officers at Peterborough City Council rubberstamped the scheme.The building is owned by the National Education and Environment Trust, and will be run in partnership with the John Clare Trust and the John Clare Society.The £1.3 million Heritage Lottery Fund windfall will also pay for a manager and education officer for five years.

Today, the editor of the John Clare Society journal, Professor John Goodridge, said “More than any other English poet, he describes the beauty of the countryside.

“It is a bit of cliché, but he is the people’s poet, and his work is accessible to many readers.”