Lawson Park

Lawson Park 2009

Lawson Park is a remote English Lake District hillfarm, leased by Grizedale Arts (a contemporary art commissioner) from the Forestry Commission. It is situated opposite the village of Coniston overlooking Coniston Water. A major refurbishment by architects Sutherland Hussey in 2007/8/9 has seen the farm transformed into a residency and office base for Grizedale Arts. It now offers live/work residencies to contemporary artists and hosts events and conferences periodically.

Grizedale Arts director Adam Sutherland has furnished the building with a notable collection of works by British designers and manufacturers from 1820 to the present day. Circa 15 acres (61,000 m²) of land around Lawson Park is being returned to productive use as a smallholding, and the gardens, designed by artist & film-maker Karen Guthrie, are open to the public in summer under the National Garden Scheme.

History

The farm was first recorded under the ownership of the Cistercian Furness Abbey (Barrow-in-Furness) in the 13th century, when it was used as a base for charcoal-burning. After deforestation of the surrounding land in the late medieval period, the farm was used by a succession of tenant sheep-farmers. In the late 19th century Victorian polymath John Ruskin - who lived in nearby Brantwood - purchased the farmhouse and land. After Ruskin's death the farm was tenanted by various families until the Taylforth family ended farming in the 1950s. The buildings were used as a student hostel until the late 1980s.

External links

• Official website