Elgar’s house gets a new look
Elgar’s birthplace in Worcestershire has been given a new lease of life by the National Trust. pays it a visit Richard Westwood Brookes
Richard Westwood Brookes reports on The National Trust’s makeover of the composer’s rural birthplace
The humble red-brick cottage known as The Firs cast such a spell on Elgar that he spent a lifetime revisiting it. Time and again, he would sit alone, dreaming, in the room of his birth and in old age he was often seen walking his beloved dogs on the nearby common, doubtless recalling memories that he had woven into his Wand of Youth suites. On three occasions he even tried to buy the property but failed each time.
Such obsession might seem strange, given that Elgar lived there for such a short time – he was just two when his family left Lower Broadheath to live above their music shop in nearby Worcester – but it stayed with him throughout his life. ‘I don’t expect much from the nation,’ he wrote, ‘but if they ever think it worthwhile, I wish they would buy this little cottage. It’s the only wish I’ve got about the nation and me…’
That wish was eventually fulfilled following a campaign spearheaded by his daughter Carice. A trust – with Vaughan Williams, Finzi and
Bliss on board – was then set up to run it as a museum which opened in 1934. But as Elgar’s godson, Wulstan Atkins, commented some years later: ‘They were all good musicians but not good financiers. As a result, the Elgar Birthplace existed in very poor condition.’
For years its tiny rooms were crammed with original manuscripts, letters, photographs and ephemera but the majority of these were left exposed to the elements and prying eyes. An appeal 20 years ago raised enough money to build an adjacent visitor centre to the museum, allowing more suitable displays for artefacts.
But financial worries and fears that the museum might be forced to close were never far away.
Last September, however, the National Trust stepped in, taking a five-year lease and so adding The Firs to the impressive list of places managed by the conservation charity. Now, as spring arrives and f lowers begin to bloom in the beautiful garden laid out to look exactly as it did when Elgar was born, The Firs celebrates its grand re-opening.
This will be a considerable relief to all who know the unfortunate history of Elgar’s homes. Despite his well-known association with Worcester, The Firs remains one of the few places to bear tangible witness that he ever lived there. The family’s shop, where his unique selftaught musical education began, was swept away in the 1950s to make way for a department store. Marl Bank, the sumptuous home where he spent his last years, suffered a similar fate in the 1960s, replaced by a block of f lats called Elgar Court.
Thankfully The Firs has survived and, appropriately, this was the special place he loved most of all. ‘We knew how important the cottage was,’ says Stuart Webb, the National Trust’s operations manager. ‘Elgar was, after all, one of the world’s greatest composers and it was here that his life’s story began. But we also realised that we had to achieve a balance between maintaining a shrine to Elgar’s memory and making it appealing to a public who may know little about him – other than as the composer of “Land of Hope and Glory” and “Nimrod”.
It’s always a delicate compromise between preserving the heritage and the history of a place while making it accessible to the general public who want a good day out.’
With this in mind, the National Trust has adopted a ‘soft opening’ approach, with a shooin period that allows time to put its own stamp on the museum and the way it is operated while instituting a comprehensive conservation programme. It also wants to gauge reactions from both the public and dyed-in-the-wool Elgarians, who might have been initially lukewarm about its involvement.
‘We wanted to give visitors an understanding of what life would have been like when the family lived at The Firs, as well as demonstrating aspects of Elgar’s later life,’ says Webb. ‘So we decked out one of the cottage rooms to evoke its Victorian atmosphere, with all its clutter and lack of modern amenities. Visitors can now see for themselves why the family took the practical decision to move. In the visitor centre we recreated what Elgar’s study might have looked like, bringing together his desk, furniture and the tools he used to compose, including the fivepronged pens he devised so his wife could draw out the staves on his manuscript paper when he was a struggling composer. There’s also the music stand he used to direct a recording of his works via telephone line from his nursing home bed a few weeks before he died.’
Other rooms house a piano from the family shop, gramophones on which he played the recordings he conducted and items such as his golf clubs (left), Worcester Races membership badges and his many puzzles and cryptograms. There’s also a 1910 Sunbeam bicycle – identical to Elgar’s own ‘Mr Phoebus’ which he rode throughout the countryside seeking inspiration – plus his microscope and the chemistry equipment he used at ‘The Ark’, his makeshift
‘‘ We wanted to give visitors an idea of what life would have been like when the family lived at The Firs ’’
laboratory behind his Hereford home. Of the latter, he confessed: ‘I am not a practical chemist: I only dabble largely & unwisely & the results are as strange as my harmony & at present produce equally useless effects: but they smell worse!’
The collection of manuscripts, photographs, letters and personal belongings, however, remains the museum’s centre piece. The main highlight is the autograph manuscript of his Second Symphony – the haunted masterpiece which some view as a monumental statement of his life. Other music exhibits include sketches for The Dream of Gerontius, including the very first idea he had for the work; the original manuscript of his ever popular Salut d’amour; the first versions of ‘Land of Hope and Glory’; music he composed for the 1932 National Brass Band competition; and popular dances he wrote as a young man for the local lunatic asylum.
Outside in the garden, near a statue of a seated Elgar gazing dreamily towards the Malvern
Hills, stands the summer house he enjoyed at his last home, while by the side of the cottage is the little grave of his two beloved dogs – springer spaniel Marco and cairn terrier Mina, the latter being the subject of a delightful little orchestral piece which was the last work he ever completed.
The official reopening marks an ambitious programme of events running throughout
April and beyond. It’s hoped that there will be live music every day and there are plans for a ‘public piano’ in the main reception area, available to any budding player – this is particularly special as it is thought to be the one played by Elgar himself during his last years. A programme of talks and discussions is also planned, as are dramatic performances based on the composer’s life.
Children have, quite rightly, been taken into consideration too. A ‘musical garden’ featuring instruments youngsters can play was established some years ago, and there are new plans for Victorian garden games similar to those the Elgar children played themselves. ‘What we are trying to achieve is to make The Firs a vibrant and dynamic place where Elgar’s music can be enjoyed by a much wider public than ever before,’ says Webb. ‘We now hope that after decades of struggling to survive against the financial realities of modern life, The Firs can look to a secure and exciting future.’
The reason why Elgar was so obsessed with The Firs is elusive, but perhaps a clue can be heard in the tinge of melancholy which pervades all his greatest works as well as exquisite cameos such as his Dream Children, Sospiri and the two interludes from his ‘symphonic study’ Falstaff. Much later in life he famously wrote: ‘I am still at heart the dreamy child who used to be found in the reeds by Severn side with a sheet of paper, trying to fix the sounds and longing for something very great…’
Perhaps the cottage became a symbol for him – like poet AE Housman’s ‘blue remembered hills’ – of a faraway elusive dream which tragically could never become a reality – a lost romantic idyll evoking memories of a tranquil country childhood cut short when he was snatched away to the bustling city life which ultimately lead to his worldwide fame.
Whatever the reason, Elgar’s life-long attachment to The Firs remained unbreakable – and now, with its future more secure, perhaps a much wider public than ever before can experience a sense of that for themselves.
For further information about The Firs visit: www.nationaltrust.org/thefirs