Walk around Tolworth 6 June 2026

 This guided walk, in the footsteps of Richard Jefferies' Tolworth years, will be led by local ecologist and Richard Jefferies Society member, Alison Fure. 

Please note that you need to book a place if you wish to attend. Numbers are limited for insurance reasons. Email bentonbat@gmail.com.

An Ecological Vision of Earth

 

New meeting room for the Richard Jefferies Museum

 Please help towards funding a new meeting room at the Richard Jefferies Museum. 

Artist's impression of the proposed building.

Richard Jefferies Society AGM and Spring Lecture

About the Society

 

The Richard Jefferies Society (RJS) was established on 13 June 1950 and now has members in all parts of the world. It is a registered charity (No. 1042838) managed by an Executive Council of volunteers.   

The Society aims to promote interest in, and respect for the life and works of Richard Jefferies (1848-1887).

Newsletters, with information about the writer, planned events, meetings, outings, publications and services are circulated to members twice a year along with an annual report.   In addition members receive a copy of the Society's Journal containing hitherto unpublished writing by Jefferies, new articles, research and book reviews. E-bulletins are sent out monthly. 

The Society has a special concern for such places in Wiltshire as the writer's birthplace at Coate that houses a Museum dedicated to his memory and is managed by the Richard Jefferies Museum Trust (a separate charity).

along with Coate Water (the setting for Bevis)

Liddington Hill -- "the labour of walking three miles to it ... seemed to clear my blood of the heaviness accumulated at home ... I began to breathe a new air".

and the memorial stone on Burderop Down with its iconic quote "It is eternity now. I am in the midst of it. It is about me in the sunshine." 

Other places of pilgrimage are at Surbiton, Sydenham and Eltham near London, and at Brighton, Crowborough and at his final home at Goring by Sea, Sussex where he died at the age of 38.  Richard Jefferies' grave is in Broadwater cemetery at Worthing.

‘To the honoured memory of the Prose Poet of England’s fields and woodlands’

Meetings are held in the winter months by Zoom and the Spring Lecture and Annual General Meeting take place at the Richard Jefferies Museum. 

A Bursary is available for projects that promote a new understanding of the writings of Jefferies.

The Society awards a yearly literary prize for excellence in nature writing in association with the White Horse Bookshop in Marlborough. 

The Society holds extensive archives at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Chippenham. Download a catalogue of our archives held there.

The Society is a member of the Alliance of Literary Societies. 

The Society hosts a Facebook page, BlueSky, Instagram and You Tube channel. 

The Society has issued a PrivacyStatement with regard to the use of 'cookies' on this website. 

PLEASE NOTE THAT A NEW WEBSITE IS IN PREPARATION FOR THE SUMMER OF 2026 THAT WILL GO LIVE AT richardjefferiessociety.org

For further information contact the Richard Jefferies Society

by email.

Zoom into LATE LIGHT by Michael Malay

DOWNLAND by Anna Dillon and Jonathan Davidson

The Scarlet Shawl published 150 years ago

150th Wedding Anniversary

Richard Jefferies and Jessie Baden were married at the parish church of the Holy Cross, Chiseldon on Wednesday 8^th July 1874. Richard’s brother and sister, Henry James and Sarah, were the witnesses, but it is not known if Jefferies’ parents were present, nor who else was at the ceremony.

 

Chiseldon Church, Wiltshire c1910. Kate Allen Tryon (1865–1952)

The Meaning of Butterflies: science, aesthetics, spirituality, poetics, relationship with place

 Matthew Oates will be talking about ‘The Meaning of Butterflies: science, aesthetics, spirituality, poetics, relationship with place.’

RICHARD JEFFERIES SOCIETY SPRING LECTURE

Saturday 27 April 2024, 2pm

Richard Jefferies Museum, Marlborough Road, Coate, Swindon SN3 6AA

Official recognition of the ‘Richard Jefferies Russet’ at Coate

Richard Jefferies -- his life and work in Cirencester

RICHARD JEFFERIES: A MISCELLANY

Jefferies-Williams Meeting 6 April 2019

Talk, walk and tree-planting in Surbiton

Excavating the future

Samuel Looker and Richard Jefferies

Celebrating Richard Jefferies early years at Coate

6 November 2017 marks almost 170 years since the day that Richard Jefferies was born on the family farm at Coate (now part of Swindon). The Richard Jefferies Society is celebrating the occasion with a public meeting to be held at Liddington Village Hall on Saturday 4 November starting at 2.30pm and the publication of the first volume of a new biography of Richard Jefferies that covers his early years living in the Coate area – a time that inspired his writing and which provided his first job as a reporter on the local paper. 

Tour of Broadwater Cemetery - August 2017

RICHARD FORTEY WINS 2016 LITERARY PRIZE

From the left: Angus Maclennan, John Price and Richard Fortey

The Richard Jefferies Society and The White Horse Bookshop Writer's Prize has been awarded to British palaeontologist, natural historian, writer and broadcaster Richard Fortey for The Wood for the Trees (William Collins). From a short list of five, the panel judged that the book best met the criterion of reflecting themes or topics broadly consistent with Jefferies’ writing.