Lawson Park is a remote EnglishLake District hillfarm, leased by Grizedale Arts (a contemporary art commissioner) from Forestry England. It is situated opposite the village of Coniston overlooking Coniston Water, behind Brantwood. A major RIBA Award-winning refurbishment by architects Sutherland Hussey in 2007/8/9 saw the farm transformed into an artists' residency and office base for Grizedale Arts. It now offers live/work residencies to contemporary artists and hosts volunteers, events and conferences periodically.[1]
Grizedale Arts director Adam Sutherland has furnished the building with a notable working collection of works by British designers and manufacturers from 1820 to the present day. Circa 15 acres (61,000 m2) of land around Lawson Park is being returned to productive use as a smallholding, and the extensive gardens, designed by artist & film-maker Karen Guthrie, are open to the public regularly.
History
The farm was first recorded under the ownership of the CistercianFurness Abbey (Barrow-in-Furness) in the 13th century, when it was used as a base for charcoal-burning. After deforestation of the surrounding land in the late medieval period, the farm was used by a succession of tenant sheep-farmers. In the late 19th century Victorian polymath John Ruskin - who lived in nearby Brantwood - purchased the farmhouse and land. After Ruskin's death the farm was tenanted by various families until the Taylforth family ended farming in the 1950s. The buildings were used as a student hostel until the late 1980s.
