Cowper and Newton Museum

The Cowper and Newton Museum stands in Olney, a small town in north Buckinghamshire about 13 kilometres north-east of Central Milton Keynes. Housed in a large red-brick Georgian house called Orchard Side, it occupies a corner site on the town’s Market Place. The museum commemorates two local figures: William Cowper, an 18th-century poet, and John Newton, a former slave trader turned abolitionist who served as curate in Olney. Together they produced the Olney Hymns, including the world-famous “Amazing Grace.” The building itself dates from the Georgian era and has been preserved as it was when Cowper lived there between 1768 and 1786. The museum’s collections include Cowper’s literary works and personal belongings, offering a close view of Georgian life. One room is dedicated to Olney’s local history, while the rest of the house shows how the poet organised his daily routine. Two gardens planted only with species introduced to England before 1800 add to the site’s interest. The Summerhouse Garden was once the apothecary’s medicinal garden, later used by Cowper as a quiet place to write. Visitors can still see the names and dates inscribed on its walls and ceiling by admirers who came after his death in 1800. The Flower Garden and Summerhouse Garden remain largely unchanged since the poet’s time. The Summerhouse itself, which Cowper called his “verse manufacturey,” is a small wooden building in the centre of the garden. Newton, Cowper’s friend and fellow hymn writer, lived nearby in the vicarage and is buried with his wife in the local churchyard. The museum is run almost entirely by volunteers and supported by local and national heritage bodies.