About
The Cowper and Newton Museum occupies Orchard Side, the house in the market town of Olney, Buckinghamshire, where the poet William Cowper lived from 1768 to 1786. It is one of the most evocative literary house museums in England, preserving the rooms where Cowper wrote The Task — the six-book poem that transformed English verse and influenced Romanticism — alongside the nearby vicarage where his close friend and collaborator John Newton served as curate of St Peter and St Paul's church. Together Cowper and Newton produced the Olney Hymns (1779), a collection that included Newton's extraordinary 'Amazing Grace', one of the most widely sung Christian hymns in the world.
John Newton's story is among the most dramatic in English religious history. A former slave ship captain who endured a violent storm at sea in 1748 that prompted his conversion, Newton later became the curate of Olney and an ardent abolitionist. He gave crucial testimony to William Wilberforce during the campaign to abolish the slave trade and lived to see abolition achieved in 1807, dying that same year. The museum addresses his slavery connection with directness and care, holding Newton's papers alongside Cowper's and enabling visitors to consider both men's spiritual journeys.
The house retains an intimate domestic character, with Cowper's garden summerhouse — in which he wrote and took refuge from the depression that dogged his life — preserved behind the building. The famous sofa immortalised in 'The Task' is displayed in the parlour, and the museum holds personal letters, first editions, portraits, and objects belonging to both men. For lovers of eighteenth-century English literature and hymnody, Olney is an essential destination.
Categories:
Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Combine with a visit to St Peter and St Paul's church across the Market Place, where Newton was curate — the church has its own Newton connections and a memorial tablet.
- The museum is open Tuesday–Saturday and closed on Sundays and Mondays; also closed January–February.
- The garden summerhouse where Cowper wrote is accessible from the rear of the building and is one of the most atmospheric spots in the museum — allow time to sit in it.
- The museum is not wheelchair accessible; the historic town house has stairs throughout.
- Olney is also famous for its annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Race — if visiting in February, check whether this falls on a museum-open day.
- Ask staff about Newton's slave trade history — the museum handles this sensitively and staff can provide context beyond the displays.
- The market town centre has good cafés and a classic English pub atmosphere — Olney is worth exploring beyond the museum.
Highlights
Cowper's Parlour and the Famous Sofa
The ground-floor parlour is the heart of the museum, preserved as closely as possible to its appearance when Cowper lived here between 1768 and 1786. The famous sofa — the one that inspired the opening lines of Cowper's long poem The Task, written at the request of his friend Lady Austen who challenged him to write about it — sits in the room.
'I sing the Sofa,' the poem begins, and from this domestic starting point Cowper ranged through nature, society, and faith in a poem that deeply influenced Wordsworth and Coleridge.
The room retains its eighteenth-century character with period furnishings and personal items.
John Newton's Papers and 'Amazing Grace'
John Newton (1725–1807) co-wrote the Olney Hymns with Cowper between 1772 and 1779, a collection of 348 hymns that transformed English Protestant worship. Newton wrote 'Amazing Grace' — probably around 1772 — drawing on his own experience of conversion after surviving a severe storm while captaining a slave ship.
The museum holds Newton's manuscript sermons, correspondence, and personal effects, with particular attention to his anti-slavery testimony and his long association with William Wilberforce.
Newton lived to see the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and died that same year aged 82.
The Garden Summerhouse
Behind Orchard Side lies the garden where Cowper kept his celebrated hares — Puss, Tiney, and Bess — and the summerhouse where he worked and sought refuge from the depression and religious anxiety that afflicted him throughout his life. The summerhouse has been preserved and is accessible from the garden, offering a remarkably unchanged view of the space in which The Task and many of the Olney Hymns took shape.
Cowper wrote about his garden obsessively, and horticulture became both occupation and solace during his years at Olney.
Newton and the Slave Trade
John Newton spent eleven years in the Atlantic slave trade, first as a sailor and then as a ship's captain, before his 1748 conversion prompted gradual disengagement. He did not immediately leave the trade — he continued as a slave ship captain until 1754 — but eventually became one of its most prominent opponents.
The museum addresses this history carefully, displaying documents relating to Newton's voyages alongside his later abolitionist pamphlet Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade (1788), written at Wilberforce's request and presented to Parliament as evidence of the trade's barbarism.
Collections
The museum's collection centres on around 2,000 items associated with Cowper, Newton, and their circle, including manuscripts, correspondence, first editions, portraits, personal effects, and furniture.
The Newton papers are particularly rich, documenting his seafaring career, religious conversion, Olney curacy, and abolitionist activism. Cowper's letters — among the finest in the English language — are represented by originals and contemporary copies.
The collection also includes material on Olney's lacemaking industry and local history, with a research archive accessible by appointment.
William Cowper: Poet of Nature and Faith
Period rooms and display cases presenting Cowper's life, work, and literary legacy, with particular attention to The Task and the Olney Hymns.
John Newton: Amazing Grace
Dedicated display on Newton's life from slave trader to curate to abolitionist, with original documents and a thoughtful account of his complex legacy.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.