Lewis Awareness
Without any doubt C S Lewis was a giant among
men and I believe he deserves so much more than the C S Lewis
Foundation of Redlands, California (who currently own the former
home), are doing. I believe the former home should be opened
up for all visitors as is Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon
for example, and that we should affix a plaque to Lewis’
former home that say’s ‘C S Lewis 1898-1963 lived
here’. Currently there is nothing to suggest that the property
once belonged to C S Lewis and no directions on how to find
it. My book about the Lewis tour in Oxfordshire is due to be
released sometime August/September 2005 and will change all
that!
To gain access to view the former home currently
is very difficult to say the least, despite a notice on the
gate saying ‘view by appointment’. The Foundation
has International students in situ from September through to
June and the Lewis Seminars take place July and August. So,
when can you get inside for an internal viewing and even if
you do manage to make it, are you shown around the whole of
the property? The simple answer is no, you will be lucky indeed
to see the lounge, dining room, a bedroom and the kitchen! Further,
you will likely be shown around by an International student
who has little or no knowledge of C S Lewis. The students pay
the Foundation a rent to stay there and when they do permit
a tour, presumably when they have nothing better to do, they
are actually allowed to keep half of the donation made by the
grateful visitor. This in my opinion is very wrong indeed and
especially so as I have an email from a student resident dated
June 12th 2004 that says, ‘That the Kilns is a private
residence inhabited by students most of the year, not a museum,
and that because of this we receive very little funding for
the upkeep and continual restoration of the Kilns’.
On September 4th 2003 Stan Mattson, Founder and
President of the C S Lewis Foundation, Redlands, California
in a very rare email to me, wrote ‘Although it is understandably
and appropriately of great interest to many, it is neither a
museum nor public property’. So I say, just what is the
Foundation about? Why would they prefer not to let visitors
see the inside of the former home of C S Lewis? With your help
we can over time, change this situation!
As a 12 year old boy having frequented the Kilns
with Lewis’ step-sons Douglas and David Gresham during
the mid 1950’s I have first hand knowledge of the property
and today have a vision of total restoration at the Kilns. I
want to put it back to what it was like originally, a typically
English country cottage lived in by C S Lewis, brother Warnie
and others of course and in comparative squalor. Was it cold,
dirty, books on shelves covered with cobwebs, blackout curtains
still in place from the war years? Until Joy Davidman (Mrs Joy
Lewis) arrived in 1957, yes it was!
I want to purchase Lewis’ former home and
the eight houses built on what was the former orchard (one house
was built in Lewis’ back garden), all of which are currently
in private ownership, the lake and woodland area today owned
by The Wildlife Trust. An expensive vision yes, with current
day costs standing at about £6-£8 million. However,
I have already received many offers of help from Americans who
have said they would be honoured to repay the comfort that C
S Lewis has brought to them. ‘We would be happy to organize
working parties as soon as you are ready’ I am told, so
with your help we could do something about this so very important
property that today has no recognition, other than that is,
by the fortunate few and generally by those who are associated
with the Foundation!
I want to rebuild the two brick kilns and the
brick drying barn (hence the name the Kilns), that once stood
just a hundred yards or so away from the former Lewis home and
bring the old air-raid shelter (today standing on land owned
by The Wildlife Trust) that our dear old friend Frank (Fred)
Paxford; spare cook, housekeeper and maintenance man built,
back into view, and reinstate the original entrance to the property,
rather than Lewis Close as is today.
The Wildlife Trust who has owned the freehold
of this area (the air-raid shelter in the woodland) since 1969
informed me that the air-raid shelter is currently a home for
bats! They also told me that the lake to the rear of the former
home for which they are responsible was ‘environmentally,
in good condition’. The reality is that apart from a huge
amount of weed left to ferment annually there are no fish, yet
during the 1950’s the lake was full of fish such as roach,
tench, perch and the odd pike. Today the lake is full of all
sorts of rubbish such as plastic drums, bottle’s, a car
seat is visible, as is a bicycle, rope, timber, concrete, bricks,
a wheelbarrow, tied bundles of newspapers, along with red and
white algae at different times of the year because the water
is stagnant and of course vandalism is rife. This then, is the
C S Lewis Nature Reserve 2004! With your help we can change
this.
I asked members of the The Wildlife Trust when
they would be re-stocking the lake with fish. A lady in the
group replied ‘we don’t want the fish they eat the
flies’. She was referring to the dragon flies and damsel
flies that hover over the disgusting ‘cess-pit’ that
they believe is environmentally good! Again I questioned them.
Surely the C S Lewis and poet Shelly (its believed poet Shelly
meditated and sailed paper boats here), connection with the
lake was far more important than flies and bats? ‘We are
environmentalists came the reply’! Frankly, my opinion
is that this area is a disgrace and they should be ashamed of
themselves. We need to clean it up as part of the total restoration;
it was after all part of Lewis’ garden!
In 1994 the Foundation told me that volunteers
(A friend of mine, an American lady by the name of Gwen K Hitt
was part of that group), had recovered half of the punt from
the lake which was then stored in the attic, so where is it
today? I say lets renovate the punt and get it back on view,
but I need your help to make it happen.
I believe we should purchase other 'Lewis related'
property in the UK such as the former home of Joy Davidman and
the Eagle and Child Public House, the Public House recently
purchased by St Johns College, Oxford where meetings between
the famous ‘Inklings’ took place for example. I asked
the Foundation for help with this project during 2004 suggesting
we turn it into a shrine to C S Lewis and didn’t even get
a response to my email! With your help we could set up a priority
purchase list. I believe we should also erect an appropriate
Memorial to Mr and Mrs C S Lewis somewhere in the City of Oxford.
I want to be able to show all visitors the humble
Lewis tombstone in good condition, to show that we care, in
the Churchyard of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry.
But if you had visited the grave before 17th May 2004 you will
know that it was very dirty with some of the lead inscription
missing. The grass was tall and the roots of nearby trees still
undermine the grave. Urgent consideration needs to be given
here also. Your donation will help with the maintenance of the
grave also.
The C S Lewis Tours that I offer at www.cslewistours.com
and www.cslewistours.co.uk
are now to be funded solely by donations, but are expensive
to run if you consider my time, the cost of the vehicle, general
running costs, maintenance etc, along with the fact that the
minibus that I have used for the last 4/5 years and funded personally
is getting tired and in need of replacing. I also have to survive!
For these reasons I have decided to ask for help from followers
of Lewis and combine fund-raising whilst offering a service
that nobody else could, due to my personal involvement with
the Lewis family during the 1950’s. For an unbiased opinion
of what pilgrims who have already done the tour say about it,
please refer to Tour
Reviews and then please help me to preserve the former
Lewis home for our future generations.
Without any doubt this is a major project and
one that may or may not be completed in my lifetime, but it
surely has to happen. If you believe in this cause and can offer
any assistance, please write to me via email or send a donation
made payable to:
|
Ron Brind
c/o C S Lewis Awareness
8 Miller Road
Wheatley
Oxford
OX33 1XB
United Kingdom
|
Suggested Gifts of Friendship
| 25.00 |
1000.00 |
Other |
| 50.00 |
2000.00 |
Property |
|
| 100.00 |
5000.00 |
Shares |
|
| 250.00 |
10000.00 |
|
|
| 500.00 |
20000.00 |
|
|
|
If you can offer assistance to ‘Lewis Awareness’
in any way at all it will be gratefully received and put to
good use in the project that awaits us. You may wish to set
up a single donation or make regular payments, or have ownership
of property or shares transferred to the cause.
Please do not be afraid to contact me for any
information relating to the project and/or the tours and allow
me to thank you in anticipation.
Coming soon – The book that Ron Brind has
written about ‘C S Lewis Tours in Oxfordshire’, containing
history, anecdotes and instructions on how to find the places
that Lewis frequented. Ron was a frequent visitor to the Kilns
during the 1950’s and recalls some of his childhood ‘antics’
with Douglas Gresham. The book should be available in August/September
2005 just before the release of the movie ‘The Lion, the
Witch and the Wardrobe’ in December 2005 which is co-produced
by Douglas Gresham, so watch the cslewistours.com webpage for
the actual release dates.
My personal and sincere thanks goes to all of
the Sponsors for your consideration in this matter.
Ron Brind
Book your London
Hotels & Oxford
Hotels with
www.PicturesOfEngland.com - Official Sponsors of the C.S.Lewis
Tour
