WHERE THOMAS PENNED UNDER MILK WOOD...
This picturesque house looks like the kind of smart rural hideaway we’d all like to live in.
But back in the late 1940s it was the shabby home of legendary Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, and where it is said he wrote much of his famous radio play, Under Milk Wood.
After working in London during the war writing propaganda films, the young Thomas moved to Oxford to earn a more steady income working for Margaret Taylor, the wife of historian AJP Taylor, and moved into the summer house of her Oxford family home.
But Thomas’s heavy drinking and Margaret’s evident ardour for the poet led AJP Taylor to insist Thomas move out. A home was arranged for him in the village of South Leigh, nine miles outside Oxford.
Dylan’s grand-daughter Hannah Ellis has subsequently said she believes it is here that Thomas gained much of the inspiration for Under Milk Wood.
This is in part because he had fewer distractions. The property had no electricity and was in poor shape so Thomas, later along with his wife and children, settled down there for two years and drew on his rural surroundings for material.
Their temporary home, The Manor House, is currently for sale. It dates to the late 17th century and has four bedrooms plus a two-bedroom guest cottage. A small bothy within the garden is where Thomas would write, according to agent Knight Frank (01865 790077). Guide price £1.8m.