A Day in the Life: Gavin Williamson, Property Manor, Kelmscott Manor

This month, we warmly welcome Gavin Williamson to the Blue & White Journal.  Gavin is the Property and Estate Manager at Kelmscott Manor, the Cotswold home of William Morris, the Father of the Arts & Crafts Movement.  An iconic collection of artwork and objects are exhibited at the house that is open from April to October each year, from Thursday to Saturday.

Gavin has worked in various customer focus industries prior to his arrival at Kelmscott Manor. After finishing college at Farnborough College of Technology, he spent five years working as Assistant Manager with Mecca Bingo before moving to Front of House Manager for theatres in Horsham and Brentford. He shares “I always had an interest in social history from studying the Agricultural & Industrial Revolution at school and in 2003, I was given the job of managing a grade one listed building, Forty Hall in Enfield, and promoting it as a historic house for local and regional visitors.  In 2012 the Hall and associated Park went through extensive restoration and improvements funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) and reopened to great acclaim. In 2025, I was made redundant due to local government cuts and was fortunate to be successful in applying for my current role of Property & Estate Manager at Kelmscott Manor, seeing it through another restoration and improvement works again funded by the NLHF.”

How does a good day begin:

Hopefully with enough sleep. My wife and I adopted two children six years ago (they are currently 9 and 11) so my first job is to get them out of bed and down for breakfast. I take the youngest to school before heading to work.

What is the first thing you do when you start work:

I usually say hello to the other staff as I arrive around 9.15am. Sometimes I need a coffee to kick start the morning while getting the laptop fired up to go through emails and plans for the day.

What are you currently working on:

The manor opens from April through to the end of October, so I am now working on the budget for the 2026 -27 year. Planning the activities we will be running and looking at the marketing for the year. We would like to revamp our website so hopefully we can find the finance to do that this year.

What does your job continue to teach you:

That teamwork is important and that we need to work together to achieve great things. Although my role covers the overall managing of the manor and estate, I have a great team of experts who I can rely on to deliver.

Influential piece/s of art and why did they mean so much to you:

‘Sunday afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’ by George Seurat. I am a big fan of Stephen Sondheim, and this painting is the inspiration for his musical ‘Sunday in the Park with George’. The end of the 1^st half of the show has the actors recreate the painting and, when I first saw that, it was spectacular.

The painting itself is also remarkable made up of dots and dashes of colour. I have yet to see it in person as it is displayed at the Art Institute of Chicago but would love to make a visit sometime in the future.

I have always been more interested in social history than royal and this picture of ordinary people enjoying the afternoon in a park always brings out something new when I look at it.

 

Most productive part of your day:

I usually find the afternoon between 2pm and 4pm to be my most productive time of the day. Hopefully emails are dealt with, and I can concentrate more on projects.

Essential skills or training for your role:

My role covers all aspects of running the estate so essential skills in health & safety, human resources and staff management, historic buildings, finance & budgets and customer service are useful. I have learnt most of this while working in different venues.

How do you decompress once you finish work:

I have a 30-minute drive home so usually decompress by listening to the radio. I recently joined a choir which sings songs from musicals and films so that is my escape, and I have signed up to ride the London to Brighton cycle ride in September so, when the days start getting longer, I will be out on my bike.

Looking back, what remains your most rewarding professional experience:

I managed another historic property in Enfield from 2003 to 2015 and grew the visitor numbers from 10,000 a year to over 40,000 before it underwent major restoration financed by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It was rewarding to see more people being engaged with history and finding out more about the original owners and the other families that lived there.

If you could take any piece of artwork home with you for a weekend, what would it be:

Kelmscott Manor has a drawing of Jane Morris by Dante Gabriel Rossetti which is the first one he drew of her before she was married to William Morris. The delicacy of the drawing is so light, and I think it is the most beautiful of all the images Rossetti made of his muse.

 

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To find out more about Kelmscott Manor or book tickets to visit, do click on this page for more information: