Think big: Inside the homes of the brightest Britons

In the new issue of BRITAIN magazine, we explore the homes of the big thinkers whose ideas have changed the world. Here we look at Sir Issac Newton’s Woolsthorpe Manor.

Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, Sir Issac newton
The South Front of Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, the family home of Sir Issac Newton Credit: National Trust Images/Nick Meers

Isaac Newton was born prematurely on Christmas morning in a modest manor house at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, in 1642.

Now run by the National Trust, Woolsthorpe Manor played an important role in Newton’s life. While the world outside was being ripped apart by civil war and ravaged by plague, the village largely escaped unscathed, even if the young Newton still endured a turbulent early life.

Wollsthorpe Manor, Sir Issac Newton
A detail of a room at Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire. Woolsthorpe was home to the world-famous scientist and mathematician Sir Issac Newton Credit: National Trust Images/Chris Lacey

His father died before he was born and, when he was three, his mother married again leaving him with his grandmother. He sought solace in books, which would lead him to reject a life on the farm and head to the University of Cambridge.

Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, National Trust
A costumed interpreter working in the kitchen at Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire. Credit: National Trust Images/Chris Lacey

Yet, ironically, he would make his most famous discoveries at the manor. When plague closed the university in 1665, Newton was forced to return home, where he formulated the laws of motion and gravity while watching apples fall from trees in the orchard.

Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, Issac Newton
A clock face at Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire Credit: National Trust Images/Chris Lacey

Today, the manor is presented as it would have been in the 17th century with each room telling the story of Isaac’s extraordinary life, creating a fascinating insight into the role the early life of this complex man played his revolutionary thinking.

Read the full article on in the September/October issue of BRITAIN magazine.

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