Have you ever stayed in one of the Alfred Cottages? Together with the Stable Cottages, they make up Farringford’s on-site self-catering accommodation. You may have enjoyed their spacious, airy, and relaxing atmosphere. For this you have the architect who designed them to thank: Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis.
Known to his friends from childhood as Clough, Williams-Ellis is best remembered for Portmeirion, the holiday village he created in North Wales. Often described as Italianate in style, Portmeirion was inspired by the hill and Riviera villages of Italy, whose buildings seemed to sit so naturally in the landscape that they might have grown there. Williams-Ellis did not want to copy these villages exactly; instead, he wanted Portmeirion to capture their sense of “friendly intimacy”.
Williams-Ellis also wanted to set an example to commercial developers by building a holiday village that was sympathetic to local concerns, not disfiguring the landscape or diluting the culture of its surroundings. To anyone who has visited or seen pictures of Portmeirion, the idea of this brightly coloured village fitting seamlessly into the surrounding Welsh hills may seem unlikely; however, Clough believed that the landscape of North Wales was, in fact, very similar to that of Northern Italy. His friend and neighbour of 40 years, Jan Morris, writes that she believes he made Portmeirion mostly for fun. Certainly, the village has a joyful whimsicality about it which supports this suggestion.
Yet however playful Portmeirion may have been, Williams-Ellis was also guided by serious principles. In his book England and the Octopus, he condemned ribbon development — the spread of building along major roads out of cities. Clough wrote that, during the First World War, when he served in the Royal Fusiliers and the Welsh Guard, he and his fellow soldiers believed they were fighting to protect rural England. On their return, however, they found that this ideal had been damaged not by the Germans but by the English themselves and by hideous urban sprawl. He was not against development in general but believed it should be sensitive to place and to the people who would live there. He supported new towns, garden cities, National Parks and the burying of power lines to preserve natural beauty. In this respect, he was years ahead of his time and became a key figure in the early conservation movement.
Inspired by his book, a group of young women formed a campaign group known as Ferguson’s Gang. They used humorous pseudonyms and masked demonstrations to protest for the preservation of rural England. Their direct action raised the funds to save several properties from ruin, including Newtown Old Town Hall on the Isle of Wight, which is only a 20-minute drive from Farringford. Their ringleader, Bill Stickers (real name Peggy Pollard), became a lifelong friend of Williams-Ellis.
How, then, did Clough Williams-Ellis come to design holiday cottages at Farringford?
By the 1940s, Clough Williams-Ellis was in demand as a fashionable society architect. His marriage to Amabel Strachey, cousin of Lytton Strachey, a founding member of the Bloomsbury Group, also placed him within influential political and artistic circles. When Portmeirion first opened, early guests included Bertrand Russell, George Bernard Shaw and the Prince of Wales, before he became Edward VIII. For a hotel venture seeking to attract an upmarket clientele, as Thomas Cook was at Farringford, Williams-Ellis was therefore a natural choice.