Title: Model of Orchard Side

Height: 61cm
Date; c.1900
Provenance: gift of Miss M.Sowman, 1971
Museum No. OLNCN.862

Orchard Side was Cowper's home from 1768 to 1786. After his death it changed hands several times, until it was offered for sale at the Bull Hotel in Olney in 1854. William Hill Collingridge (1827-1905), who bought the house, had been born at Orchard Side and later admitted that his successful bid for it had been one of the happiest moments of his life.

From the late 19th century the possibility of buying Orchard Side and establishing it as a museum to commemorate Cowper was under discussion (constructing a new building for the purpose would, it was considered, have been prohibitively expensive). Attempts at fundraising proved unsuccessful and finally Collingridge wrote to the Rev. J P Langley, Vicar of Olney, offering the house as a gift to the town.

The offer was accepted and after restoration over the winter of 1899 the Rev. Langley wrote to Collingridge announcing the plan to open the Cowper Museum in April 1900, with William Samuel Wright (1831-1915) as its first caretaker-cum-curator.

Orchard Side is made up of two separate buildings with a central gateway. They were built in the late 17th century and the front brick facade with its pedimented doorways, pilasters and stone strings and dressings was added to connect them in the early 1700s.

Cowper lived in the western half of what appears from the outside to be a single house. Behind the building a long flower garden leads to a further garden containing Cowper's famous Summer House, where he wrote many of his poems.

The eastern half is now known as Gilpin House (after Cowper's poem 'John Gilpin').

See also Orchard Side.