William Morris and the Story of Strawberry Thief

Ripe strawberries growing among leaves in a kitchen garden

Strawberry Thief is one of the most recognisable patterns in British design. Birds with speckled breasts dart among strawberries, flowers and curling stems on a deep indigo ground. More than a century after it was designed, it still appears on cushions, curtains, wallpapers, tea towels and oven gloves in homes all over the world. Behind it lies a story about a remarkable man, a much-loved stone house on the edge of the Cotswolds and a flock of thieving thrushes.

Who was William Morris?

William Morris was born in Walthamstow, then a village on the edge of London, in 1834, and died in 1896. In his sixty-two years he was a designer, a poet, a novelist, a translator, a printer, a craftsman, a conservationist and a campaigner. He is best remembered today as the leading figure of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Morris was dismayed by the cheap, poorly made goods pouring out of Victorian factories. He believed that ordinary objects should be made well, by people who took pleasure in their work, and that beautiful things should be part of everyday life. His most famous piece of advice is still widely quoted: "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

In 1861 he founded the firm that became Morris and Co., which designed and made wallpapers, textiles, furniture, stained glass and tapestries. Many of its designs are still in production today.

Kelmscott Manor

In 1871, Morris took on the lease of Kelmscott Manor, an Elizabethan stone farmhouse in the village of Kelmscott, close to Lechlade on the upper Thames, on the southern edge of the Cotswolds. He loved it deeply. Its grey stone, steep roofs, old garden and the quiet water meadows around it seemed to him the ideal of an English house, built by hand from local materials and shaped by centuries of use.

Kelmscott became his country retreat and an endless source of inspiration. Its garden, its river and its birds found their way into his designs, and he later named his private printing press, the Kelmscott Press, after it.

The thrushes in the strawberry beds

The kitchen garden at Kelmscott grew strawberries, and the thrushes that lived in the garden found them irresistible. Morris could easily have netted the beds or had the birds chased away. Instead, the story goes, he asked that the birds not be harmed, and he watched them.

The result was Strawberry Thief, a textile design registered in 1883. It shows pairs of thrushes among strawberry plants, with flowers and leaves woven through a dense, symmetrical pattern. Look closely and you will see that some birds have strawberries in their beaks. It is both a celebration of the garden and a gentle joke about the birds who helped themselves to the crop.

A slow and difficult print

Strawberry Thief was the first design in which Morris successfully used a technique called indigo discharge printing, a method he had spent years trying to master.

Indigo is a deep blue natural dye that is difficult to print directly onto cloth. In discharge printing, the whole length of fabric was first dyed blue in a vat of indigo. A bleaching agent was then printed onto the cloth using carved wooden blocks, removing the blue where lighter colours were wanted. Other colours, such as reds and yellows, were then printed by hand, block by block, into those pale areas. The yellow printed over the remaining blue produced greens.

Each length of fabric passed through many stages and took a long time to complete. Morris printed the design at his workshops at Merton Abbey, by the River Wandle in Surrey, where the clean water was ideal for dyeing. The effort made Strawberry Thief one of the most expensive fabrics Morris and Co. sold. It was also one of the most popular.

Why the design still works

Strawberry Thief has lasted because it is brilliantly constructed. The pattern is busy and full of detail, yet balanced and calm when seen from a distance. The deep blue ground makes it feel rich rather than fussy, and the colours, drawn from the natural world, sit comfortably with wood, brass, stone and plain linen.

It suits a traditional country kitchen, a sitting room with oak furniture or a simple modern room that needs warmth and character. Few patterns move so easily between styles.

Morris and the Cotswolds

Morris's love of the Cotswolds went beyond Kelmscott. He was a great admirer of the region's villages and old buildings, and is often said to have described Bibury as the most beautiful village in England. He also founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877, which campaigned against heavy-handed "restoration" of old churches and houses. Its principles still guide the care of historic buildings today.

His ideas inspired a generation of craftsmen who settled in the Cotswolds. In 1902, the designer C. R. Ashbee moved his Guild of Handicraft from London to Chipping Campden, and furniture makers Ernest Gimson and the Barnsley brothers established workshops near Sapperton. The region remains closely associated with the Arts and Crafts movement.

Visiting Kelmscott

Kelmscott Manor is now cared for by the Society of Antiquaries of London and is open to visitors on set days through the season. Inside are furniture, textiles and objects from Morris's time, and the garden still has the feel he loved. Morris is buried in the churchyard of St George's in Kelmscott village, beneath a simple stone. Always check opening times before you travel. For more Cotswold villages to visit, see our weekend in the Cotswolds.

Using Strawberry Thief at home

A little goes a long way. A single cushion, a tea towel or an oven glove is enough to bring the pattern into a room.
Pair it with plain, natural materials. Linen, oak, brass and stoneware let the pattern breathe.
Pick out a colour. Repeat the teal, the red or the soft yellow in a vase, a jug or a throw.
Don't fight it. Keep other patterns small and quiet nearby.

Our Strawberry Thief Teal Oven Glove is a small, useful way to bring Morris into the kitchen, and a thoughtful gift for a keen cook or anyone who loves the Arts and Crafts movement.

The Morris idea, today

Morris's belief that we should be surrounded by things that are useful and beautiful, made well and built to last, feels more relevant now than ever. It is the idea behind choosing fewer, better things: a wooden board that lasts for decades, a wool throw passed down the family, a brass candlestick that only looks better with age. See how we think about this in our guides to choosing a wool throw and caring for brass.