Explore the Arthur Ransome Trust
On this page:
About the Arthur Ransome Trust
Our projects
Our progress
Our plans
Explore the Arthur Ransome Trust’s projects, progress and plans to discover:
- Why we want to build a Ransome home;
- What it will be like; and
- How we’re unearthing buried treasure today.
The explorers
Swallowdale
‘They aren’t human footprints at all. They’re the hoofmarks of a mastodon.’ She looked across towards the mainland. Those marshes might stretch for miles. Anything might live in them and nobody would know.
Secret Water
ART is an educational charitable trust. We are registered by the Charities Commission for England & Wales, No 1136565. As a charity, our tracks are all about helping people discover, appreciate and enjoy Arthur Ransome’s life and works. ART is currently managed by seven Trustees, James Bruce, Paul Flint, David Hambleton, Helen Lewis, Geraint Lewis, Joel Walker and Lesley Wareing.
Our Deed of Trust defines ART’s purpose (its charitable “object”) as: “…the increase of… (the general public’s, ie everybody’s) “… knowledge, understanding and appreciation of any matters relating to the life and works of Arthur Ransome”. Our long term aim is to fulfil this work at a permanent Arthur Ransome Centre. More immediately we are doing so through a range of active projects.
A Ransome Home…
Our A Ransome Home project exists to create a permanent Arthur Ransome Centre in the southern Lake District.
‘It’s not what I call homely’
The Picts and the Martyrs
This sounds simple enough. But in reality we know it is an ambitious target. Achieving it requires research, consultation, awareness-raising, team-building, business-cases, fundraising and more beside. Some of these activities can’t even begin until we’ve made sufficient progress with others. But progress with all are necessary before we’ll be able to acquire, develop and open a centre. We realise, therefore, that we’re some way from ceremonial ribbon cutting! Fortunately this does mean that we have had time in which to think about why a Ransome Centre matters, and what form it should take.
What will a Ransome centre be like?
We are drawing inspiration from the way that the Collingwood family, Arthur Ransome’s mentors, welcomed him into their home and lives at Lanehead, Coniston. For the Collingwoods, Lanehead was a creative hive: the whole family were writers, artists, sculptors, musicians, archaeologists and antiquarians. By welcoming the young Ransome – at a time when he was aspiring to a creative career – they gave him a place in which he could experiment, flex his imagination and grow.
I had behind me a family who did not assume I was heading for some disastrous failure and were not convinced that whatever I was doing I should be better employed doing something else. The whole of the rest of my life has been happier because of them.
The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome
We want a Ransome Centre to emulate that, by being a place where people of all ages can discover, experience, imagine and enjoy Arthur Ransome’s life and works, including the Swallows and Amazons novels. We envisage having exhibition spaces at the core of the centre – and glass in the windows – but we don’t want a static museum. Arthur Ransome deserves a memorial, but we want it to be a living one, not a mausoleum. Just as Ransome’s life was changed by the Collingwoods, so have innumerable careers and hobbies been inspired by him.
…And current projects
Buried Treasureis our publishing project, keeping important Ransome works in print.
Camp Firesis our programme of occasional public talks and meetings.
Model Studentsexists to develop educational materials for schools and more informal settings.
Temporary Mooringsis our programme of bespoke exhibitions, organised in partnership with host organisations.
Snug Berthsraises awareness via semi-permanent displays and installations in the Lake District and beyond.
Voyages of Discoveryoffers mobile displays and events across the UK.
First mug of water
Pigeon Post
‘Barbequed billygoats,’ said Nancy. ‘If it’s there, we’ll get at it all right if we have to dig through to Australia.’
Pigeon Post
Our “first mugs of water” include:
6
of Ransome’s original works republished, including A History of Story-Telling, The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome and Old Peter’s Russian Tales & the Battle of the Birds and the Beasts
3
summer-long exhibitions in the Lake District, Imagination and Reality, the Art of Arthur Ransome, From Coniston to the Kremlin: Arthur Ransome’s Russian Adventures and Swallows and Amazons, as Seen from Abroad
Over 30
Voyages of Discovery at locations across the UK, including theatres and central libraries in Bristol, Cardiff, Chichester, Darlington, Liverpool and Leeds, and Cumbrian shows including Coniston, Grasmere, Holker Hall and Lowther.
Over 20
lectures and seminars, on subjects including his relationship with the Collingwoods and his approach to literary maps.
Out of sight we have also been researching potential locations for A Ransome Home and opportunities for Model Students, as well as developing informative Swallows & Amazons products such as greeting and postcards, and creating a free-to-use Swallows and Amazons app.
Scotland Yard
The Big Six
Our current major priorities are to:
- Continue developing our plan for an innovative physical “stepping stone” on the way to creating an Arthur Ransome centre;
- Identify and develop further opportunities for displays, installations and exhibitions in the Lake District and beyond;
- Continue developing and sustaining our Buried Treasure publications project;
- Work with other organisations towards a centenary celebration of Swallows and Amazons in 2030; and
- Make supporting, befriending and helping ART a more enjoyable and fulfilling experience for all.
We are also continuing to:
- Undertake talks, seminars and other events on an opportunity basis;
- Develop our app and products; and
- Research educational materials, both for use in schools and in more informal settings.