Cowper and Newton Museum

From Wikipedia:

The Cowper and Newton Museum is a museum in Olney, north Buckinghamshire, England, around 8 miles (13 km) north-east of Central Milton Keynes. Celebrating the work and lives of two famous local residents: William Cowper (1731–1800), a celebrated 18th-century poet; and John Newton (1725–1807), a slave trader and subsequently a prominent abolitionist, who was curate in the local church.^[1] Together, Cowper and Newton wrote the Olney Hymns, including one of the world’s most popular hymns, “Amazing Grace“.

From the Museum:

Orchard Side was not the first Cowper museum, but it was the first permanent one. Wright’s cousin was leader of the Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society, and Wright organised a temporary Cowper museum at Etolia House in preparation for the Society’s visit. He then began to exhibit his Cowper Collection in his own home. But Wright knew this would be a temporary situation and worked tirelessly to press for a permanent site to house all Cowper collections.

Wright began to ‘commence an agitation for the establishment of a permanent museum of Cowper MSS. (manuscripts) and relics…’ He wrote a biography of William Cowper in 1892. Campaigning tirelessly through local and national letters and talks for the next 12 years, he hoped Collingridge would agree that Orchard Side should be dedicated to keeping William Cowper’s memory alive, to benefit the people of Olney and the nation itself.

Thomas Wright believed Orchard Side was Cowper’s spiritual home and destined to become a permanent venue in his honour. Cowper loved Olney as an escape from stressful city life; its peaceful and beautiful surroundings helped to preserve his fragile mental health. He wrote ecstatically of the beauty of the countryside, as detailed in his poem, The Task. His close friend and literary collaborator John Newton was curate-in-charge at the nearby church; the two were close friends and Newton visited so regularly that he paid a neighbour a guinea a year for access through the land that separated them, now known as the Guinea Orchard.

Photo from https://cowperandnewtonmuseum.org.uk/museum-history/