The small building has colourwashed brick walls and a tiled roof. It was probably built as a forester's or labourer's
cottage in 1808 but was largely reconstructed in 1922-34 by
T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") for himself. The lintel over the door bears a Greek inscription ("why worry"). The site was in the parish of
Turners Puddle in
Purbeck District. As "Clouds Hill (Lawrence of Arabia's Cottage)", it is now a
Grade II* listed building; it was upgraded from Grade II in 2015. Lawrence first rented the cottage in 1923 while stationed at nearby
Bovington Camp with the
Tank Corps. He made it habitable with the help of a friend, then bought it in 1925 and used it as a holiday home. The cottage had no electric lights and three living rooms, described as an eating room, book room and music room. For heat insulation Lawrence had the eating room lined with
asbestos that was covered in aluminium foil, and he kept his food under
bell jars; a ship’s
porthole, from the broken-up
HMS Tiger, was installed in 1935. In the book room he installed a large leather
divan, and in the music room above it he had his
gramophone "with a huge amplifier horn", a leather sofa and chair. "The cottage has two rooms, one, upstairs, for music (a gramophone and
records) and one downstairs for books. There is a bath in a demi-cupboard. For food one goes a mile, to Bovington (near the Tank Corps Depot) and at sleep time I take a great sleeping bag... and spread it on what seems the nicest floor... The cottage looks simple outside, and does no hurt to its setting which is twenty miles of broken heath and a river valley filled with rhododendrons run wild. I think everything, inside and outside my place, approaches perfection... Yours ever, T. E. Shaw" In 1935 Lawrence left the
Royal Air Force and lived at Clouds Hill. A few weeks later, at the age of 46, he suffered injuries in a motorcycle accident close to the cottage, and died in the Bovington Camp hospital on 19 May 1935. The following year, his heir, his brother
A. W. Lawrence, gave Clouds Hill to the National Trust. It is now a museum, dedicated to Lawrence. It is open to visitors from March to the beginning of October. The cottage remains largely as Lawrence left it at his death. It features an exhibition detailing Lawrence's life, and most of his original furniture and possessions. The cottage reflects his complex personality and links to the
Middle East. In it is displayed a painting by
Henry Scott Tuke of a soldier cadet, possibly Lawrence, at Newporth Beach. The circular Lawrence of Arabia Trail starts and finishes at Bovington's
The Tank Museum, taking in Clouds Hill and the churchyard of
St Nicholas' Church in
Moreton, where Lawrence is buried. ==Sleeping bags==