A Life Outside: Discovering Hope Bourne on Exmoor
Posted November 12, 2025Step inside the world of Hope Bourne, artist, writer and quiet chronicler of Exmoor, as Somerset Rural Life Museum hosts a new exhibition celebrating her life and work this autumn.
Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury
27 September 2025 – 10 January 2026
In a world of noise and rush, there’s something deeply moving about the quiet life of Hope Bourne, a woman who chose simplicity, self-reliance and art as her way of being in the world.
This autumn, the Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury invites visitors to step into her remarkable story through A Life Outside: Hope Bourne on Exmoor, the first major exhibition dedicated to this extraordinary nature writer and artist whose work captures the untamed beauty of the West Country.
Who Was Hope Bourne?
Born in 1918, Hope Bourne spent nearly sixty years living on Exmoor. She painted, sketched and wrote with an intensity born of deep observation. Living in tiny cottages, and later in a caravan, she sustained herself through her art, bartering sketches for food and recording her daily life in meticulous journals.
Her drawings sometimes made on scraps of paper, envelopes or cereal packets, chart the rhythm of Exmoor’s changing seasons, the curve of a valley, a red deer in the mist. She wrote for local papers, published books on Exmoor life, and captured the spirit of the moor long before “slow living” became a modern mantra.
As The Guardian recently wrote, Bourne “lived very lightly on the earth”, and that simplicity feels strikingly modern today, a lesson in living close to nature, valuing resourcefulness and finding creativity in the everyday.
Inside the Exhibition
Hosted by the South West Heritage Trust, this exhibition brings together a fascinating collection of Bourne’s work and belongings, offering an intimate look at her world:
-
Original sketches and watercolours – from delicate pencil drawings to vivid landscapes painted on recycled materials.
-
Personal objects – her paraffin lamp, compass, binoculars and trusty radio, all quietly telling the story of a life lived with care and intention.
-
Journals, letters and manuscripts – filled with insight into her days on Exmoor and her reflections on the land that shaped her.
It’s an evocative, sensory experience, a celebration of creativity rooted in place.
A Visit Worth Making
For Hidden Somerset readers, this exhibition is a quiet treasure, one of those rare experiences that lingers long after you’ve left.
When: 27 September 2025 – 10 January 2026
Where: Somerset Rural Life Museum, Chilkwell Street, Glastonbury BA6 8DB
Admission: Included with standard museum entry; free for Museum Unlimited members.
You might combine your visit with a wander through Glastonbury’s eclectic streets, a stop for coffee or lunch at FARA, the beautiful café/restaurant near the museum, before walking up the Tor to take in those sweeping Somerset views. It’s an easy and rewarding loop, art, good food, and a landscape that has inspired writers and dreamers for centuries.
Her life reminds us that art needn’t be grand to be meaningful, that connection, not consumption, is what makes a life rich.
Why Hidden Somerset Loves It
Hope Bourne’s story is Somerset to the core, rooted in landscape, shaped by the seasons, and filled with quiet creativity.
Her art, her words and her way of living all speak to the same truth we celebrate here: that beauty often hides in the everyday, waiting to be noticed.
If you’re drawn to stories of craft, heritage and life lived close to the land, don’t miss A Life Outside.