Bruce Dickinson has been announced as patron of The Blake Cottage Trust, a charity dedicated to preserving the only surviving house of the visionary artist and poet William Blake, reports Dig!.

The Iron Maiden frontman has frequently referenced Blake’s works within his own creative output, including extensively on his new solo album, The Mandrake Project. The video for Dickinson’s recent single, "Rain On The Graves", references Blake in many different ways, from the mystical and arcane through to the more prosaic image of Bruce uncovering a replica of Blake’s grave at the end.

The Blake Cottage is situated in Felpham on the Sussex Coast, where William and his wife Catherine lived between 1800 and 1803. It was in the cottage that he wrote the words to what we now know as the hymn Jerusalem. William’s three years in the village marked the start of the most important period in his creative life.

Despite being recognized as one of the most important places in English literary history, when the Trust purchased the Cottage it was found to have structural issues and the thatched roof is now in urgent need of repair, meaning it is unsafe to allow access.

Dickinson comments, “William Blake has given me so much over the years and I want to repay the debt by helping to restore the Cottage. Despite his impact on the world, there is no centre for Blake, nowhere people can visit to see the place where he actually lived and worked during a key part of his life. I want to change this.”

Read more at Dig!.