Gwen Raverat

Gwen Raverat (1885-1957) was an English wood engraver and a founder member of the Society of Wood Engravers. She was born in Cambridge, a granddaughter of Charles Darwin and a daughter of the astronomer Sir George Darwin. Her childhood memoir Period Piece appeared in 1952. Cambridge, and the people connected with it, stayed at the centre of her life.

Newnham Grange and Darwin College

Newnham Grange, where she was born and grew up, was built in 1793 for the family of the corn and coal merchant Patrick Beales. Her parents bought it in 1885 and remodelled it. The house is now part of Darwin College, which also took in the neighbouring Old Granary. The college has named one of its student houses after her. A blue plaque for Raverat and Period Piece was unveiled at Newnham Grange in 2003.

Silver Street

In 1946 she moved to the Old Granary on Silver Street, at the end of the garden of the house where she was born. She lived there until her death. She began Period Piece at the age of 62 and illustrated it with line drawings. It has not been out of print since 1952, and one chapter describes the house and the flooding from the river.

Theatre work and the Fitzwilliam Museum

Raverat designed costumes, scenery and programmes for about ten productions, mostly for the Cambridge University Musical Society. Her first theatre work was the costumes for Comus at the New Theatre in 1908. In 1931 the masque Job, for which she had made scenery and costumes, had its premiere in Cambridge. The miniature model she built for its stage set is held at the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Visiting

The Darwin College page gives access details for the college garden and Newnham Grange.