I love the National Trust and as both Nathan and I are National Trust members we often see if there are any NT places we can visit when we are away somewhere.
When staying in Sussex for my nephew’s christening one weekend over the summer, we visited Monks House in East Sussex – the previous home of Leonard and Virginia Woolf.
Home Fit for an Author
The house is a 17th-century cottage and is really cute and quaint. It’s situated in a really lovely part of East Sussex too, a very enviable place to live for sure! Due to its size, the house has a limit to the number of people able to enter at once but we didn’t have to queue and went straight in. A warning to people hoping to visit though – the ceilings are rather low and despite being told to watch out for them Nathan still managed to donk his head rather hard on the entrance door!
I loved the feel of the house, there were various rooms to explore and the staircase was lined with Virginia’s famous novels which was a nice touch. I really liked all the cactuses in the entrance way too for some reason!
A Writer’s Dream
Apparently, famous novelist Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard lived at Monk’s House from 1919 until Leonard died in 1969. I can imagine it was a lovely place to live and a good place to draw inspiration and write from.
The house is surrounded by lovely countryside gardens and allotments. It was such a gorgeous place to wander around in the sunshine.
When we visited it was a sunny day and there were deckchairs conveniently situated on the lawn for us to have a little sit-down and admire the views!
Final Thoughts
As always this was a lovely little National Trust property to explore with beautiful and well maintained gardens. I liked all the references to Virginia’s work and enjoyed finding out more about her life and work as an author.
Lovely informative article..supported by beautiful pics…the place looks so peaceful and Serene…you have described it so well..
Thank you
Thank you, glad you liked the post!
It looks like a lovely place to visit, I love the book wall. Such a unique idea.
Yes so clever isn’t it, very arty!
One thing I like about traveling is seeing the beauty of nature, great blog!
Nature and pretty houses full of history are the best! great way to spend a morning in Sussex!
This seems like such a unique place. I am sure you must have had an amazing experience.
We sure did. Love the National Trust!
Virginia Woolf is one of my all time favourite authors. This would have been an incredible experience, I am sure. I would love to do this.
No way, that’s cool, defo go and visit her house if you’re ever in the Sussex area! 🙂
How Amazing that you got to visit that magical cottage! I love the scenery- how inspiring. Thanks for sharing your experience.
It’s so pretty isn’t it, the gardens were lovely too!
Virgina Woolf is an awesome author. I would love to visit her cottage! It is beyond beautiful.
That definitely looks like a nice quaint area to visit. Thanks for sharing the pictures and the article.
This looks like such a neat place to visit. I can see having plenty of inspiration for writing living here. The book wall is such a cool idea!
Yes, I bet Virginia drew a lot of inspiration from her surroundings for sure.
It’s always fascinating to see where famous authors lived and drew their inspiration. That’s so cool you got to visit!
Wow! I love to visit places like this. Full of history and story. You got to take a peek at portion of a writers life through her home.
Yes we certainly did, that’s a really cool way to look at it!
Wow. This place is really beautiful. I am sure it would inspire people to write with the best creativity. Awesome
It looks so calm and inviting. The gardens are the kind of place you could sit and read or write for hours. It’s wonderful that they are maintaining a beautiful picture of history.
Yes, totally and I am sure that’s what Virginia must have done! We loved chilling on the deck chairs in the sunshine!
This looks like a great place to visit! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for reading 🙂
I also love the National Trust and I have never been to this place but it looks so stunning so I will definitely add it to the list.
It looks beautiful thanks for sharing!
Glad you like the look of Monks House, it really was gorgeous!
I wish we had something like the National Trust membership in my country. It would be fascinating to visit such amazing places!
It’s so worth it, you get to see so many lovely places! I love it, think I’ll always be a member now!
Look at this beautiful botanical garden. Looks so nice and relaxing!
It was very pretty, nice and relaxing on a sunny day!
Wow this place looks amazing! I would love to visit here
It was gorgeous, wish my house looked like it did!
It looks like a lovely place to visit. I would love to visit here. Thanks for sharing.
It was lovely, really recommend if you’re into that sort of thing.
This looks like such a great place to visit! I’m a National Trust member as well and love going to places with literary connections. This is definitely going on the list 🙂
Ah brill, I love being an NT member – so many great places to explore isn’t there! Hope you get to visit one day!
What a great experience. The gardens and the home are beautiful. I can see how one would get a lot of inspiration from this home.
They are so lush aren’t there, lovely place to relax!
What a fun place to visit! I always think that authors and artists tend to have the most interesting homes!
Yes totally, it felt really creative and artistic and I guess given her job as an author it made lots of sense!
This looks like a wonderful place to visit. I love the book wall most of all.
Yes it’s so cool isn’t it!
Wow, wow, wow to that green house. I’d love to visit. In fact, I’d love to go to Sussex. 🙂
Haha, greenhouse of dreams right! It’s a lovely county to visit 🙂
I’ve never actually heard about this place nor have I visited sussex before. I love the bookshelves!
Me too. I would love a bookshelf and wall like the ones in this house!
this seems like such a fun adventure! Love the sun room/green house!
Gorgeous isn’t it!
this home truly looks like a dream!!! that picture of the books on the stairs looks heavenly….what a neat place to visit!
I know, I love that picture, it made me want to put books up all my stairs too but then I remembered I lived in a flat so have no stairs lol
This is such great place to visit! I loved everything about it, I’ll have to look into going there myself sometime.Thanks for sharing!
It was gorgeous, really recommend!