Kenneth Wilson, ‘Highway Cello’

Hi, I’m Kenneth Wilson. I’ve lived at Ravenbridge since 2009. I restored much of the house, and added the Gallery and the music room (the bedroom with the big balcony), and put in the biomass heating. I built the sauna, and the wooden bridge across the Raven. I’ve planted about 18,000 trees.

I live here because by chance I saw a picture of the house – a view from across the lake – with a “for sale” sign. It seemed too good to be true, and I still think that every day.

It’s important to me to make a personal as well as a political response to the world we live in. Biomass heating, tree-planting, lake-swimming and music are part of that. “What do you do?” is a difficult question to answer completely, but usually I say something like “I’m a poet and cellist” – I perform as Highway Cello. If you'd like a performance as part of your stay at Ravenbridge, let me know.  Lots of details at www.kennethwilsoncello.com.

In 2022 I packed my cello on the back of an old bicycle and pedalled from Hadrian's Wall to Rome, playing every day on the way. I wrote a book about it, called Highway Cello. I am also the author of "Orange Dust: Journeys After the Buddha", and "The Definitions of Kitchen Verbs".

Photographs:

• all interior photos Lucy Barden
• outside photos Kenneth Wilson
• aerial photos Tim Pearce