Olney

Variety’s the spice of life; Monarch of all I survey;
God made the country and man made the town…

All these familiar phrases are now embedded in the language but how many could name the writer? In fact, they all came from the pen of the 18th-century poet William Cowper who spent the last 20 years of his life in the elegant market town of Olney.

He came to the town to be near his friend the Reverend John Newton, a former slave trader who had repented and become “a man of gloomy piety”. The two men collaborated on a book of religious verse, the Olney Hymns, in which Cowper’s contributions included such perennial favourites as Oh! for a closer walk with God; Hark, my soul! It is the Lord; and God moves in a mysterious way.

The house in which Cowper lived from 1768 to 1786 is now the Cowper and Newton Museum, a fascinating place that concentrates on Cowper’s life and work, but also has some exhibits and collections concerned with the times in which he lived and the life of Olney. Each of the rooms of the large early 18th-century town house has been specially themed and there are numerous displays of Cowper’s work, including the Olney Hymns. Cowper was also a keen gardener and the summerhouse, where he wrote many of his poems, can still be seen in the rear garden. Here he experimented with plants that were new to 18th-century England. Also at the museum is the nationally important Lace Collection, and items particular to the shoemaking industry, which was another busy local trade in the 19th and early 20th century.

When Cowper died in 1800 he was buried at East Dereham in Norfolk, but his associate Newton, the reformed slave-trader, is interred in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul, where he had been the curate. This church is a spacious building dating from the mid 14th century and its spire rises some 185 feet to dominate the skyline of Olney.

For more than 300 years Olney was a centre of lace-making by hand, using wooden or bone bobbins. When lace was at its most expensive, in the 1700s, only the well-to-do could afford to buy it, but the rise in machine-made lace from Nottingham saw a fall in prices and a sharp decline in Olney lace. A revival of the trade was tried by Harry Armstrong when he opened the Lace Factory in 1928 but, although handmade lace is still produced locally, the factory only lasted until Armstrong’s death in 1943.

Amongst the town’s claims to fame is the annual Pancake Race. Legend has it that the first ‘race’ was run in the 15th century when a local housewife heard the Shriving Service bell ringing and ran to church complete with her frying pan and pancake.

Nearby Emberton Country Park, located on the site of former gravel pits, is an ideal place to relax. Not only are there four lakes and a stretch of the River Ouse within the park’s boundaries, but also facilities here include fishing, sailing, and nature trails.