Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 –1958)

Ralph Vaughan Williams was born in 1872 at Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, the third child and younger son of the Reverend Arthur Vaughan Williams, the vicar, and his wife, Margaret, née Wedgwood. Margaret Vaughan Williams was a great-granddaughter of Josiah Wedgwood and niece of Charles Darwin. On the death of her husband, Margaret moved her to her family home of Leith Hill Place. When the young Vaughan Williams asked his mother about Darwin’s controversial book On the Origin of Species, she answered, “The Bible says that God made the world in six days. Great Uncle Charles thinks it took longer: but we need not worry about it, for it is equally wonderful either way” Ralph Vaughan Williams composed some of his most famous music at Leith Hill Place including The Larks Ascending in 1914.

For the purchase of the field, Mrs Vaughan Williams donated £2, Mrs Wedgwood donated £1, as did Mr Vaughan Williams, making a total of £4, the equivalent of about £360 in today’s terms.