THE WORD IN THE WEST MIDLANDS

PLACES TO VISIT 7 THE PRINTING SHOP, BLISTS HILL 9 LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL LIBRARY VICTORIAN TOWN, IRONBRIDGE

THE HURD LIBRARY AT Buxton 1 HEREFORD CATHEDRAL 3 Chesterfield HARTLEBURY CASTLE 5 DER BY S H II R

Stoke-on-Trent EE

S © Lichfield Camera Club T © Lichfield Camera Club Reproduced by Reproduced kind permission of the by Reproduced kind permission of the Dean and Cathedral Chapter of Hereford Dean and Cathedral Chapter of Hereford A © Derek © Wilbraham/Enlightened Images Derek © Wilbraham/Enlightened Images Derek © Ironbridge Gorge © Museum Gorge Ironbridge Trust F Derby © Museum Gorge Ironbridge Trust When looking for the ‘Word in the West FO A short walk from Dr Johnson’s birthplace Hartlebury Castle lies four miles south of R Midlands’ the magnificent surroundings of D E Standing on fifty-two acres of land that stands the magnificent Lichfield Cathedral. Kidderminster. The castle and its SHIR Hereford Cathedral might be a good place to originally held brick and tile works, blast Although the Cathedral’s original collection surrounding landscape have belonged to the start. Here are words in abundance, for the Stafford furnacesfurnaces andand coalcoal mines,mines, BlistsBlists HillHill VictorianVictorian of manuscripts and early printed books was bishops of Worcester since about 860 AD. At Shrewsbury Cathedral houses the largest surviving Telford 8 Town is a vast interactive museum. Like many lostlost duringduring thethe CivilCivil War,War, whenwhen thethe oldold thethe backback ofof thethe Castle,Castle, overlookingoverlooking thethe moat,moat, chained library in the world. The Chained Lichfield urban areas, the Victorian Town is constantly librarylibrary waswas muchmuch damageddamaged andand looted,looted, aa isis thethe HurdHurd Library.Library. TheThe LibraryLibrary waswas foundedfounded Library contains over 1,500 books, the earliest 7 9 expanding. Once through the visually stunning ‘new’‘new’ librarylibrary isis nownow situatedsituated aboveabove thethe inin 17831783 byby RichardRichard Hurd,Hurd, BishopBishop ofof of which are the eighth-century Hereford E Wolverhampton entrance hall in the Visitor Centre, you find Chapter House. Its contents include a fine Worcester from 1781-1808. It is a unique Gospels. The Library itself dates from 1611, IR yourself on the main street. Walk down the fifteenth-centuryfifteenth-century manuscriptmanuscript ofof Chaucer’sChaucer’s

example of a working library, formed by an H W

when the books were chained to the shelves to PS W street - past the bank, the New Inn and the Canterbury Tales,, aa HenryHenry VIIIVIII GreatGreat Bible,Bible,

ensure their security. Two further highly eighteenth-century scholar-bishop, which SHRO and Orders for the Regulation of the Prince’s

A A butcher - and you eventually reach the printing

remains on its original shelves and in the 4 R

significant documents, both dating from the 6 R shop. Periodically, there are demonstrations Household signed by Charles I. Tours of the

W original room built for it. If you plan to visit W latelate MiddleMiddle Ages,Ages, cancan alsoalso bebe seenseen atat thethe Birmingham Coventry of the 1860 Henry Smith Cropper printing Library need to be booked in advance. thethe Library,Library, itit isis importantimportant toto notenote thatthat Cathedral: one of the only four surviving press in action. Before you visit, call the Permanently displayed in the Chapter House I I admission is for pre-booked guided tours CC copies of Henry III’s revised Magna Carta 10 Ludlow 3 telephonetelephone numbernumber belowbelow toto findfind outout whenwhen thethe are the St Chad’s Gospels, dating from only. Visit the website below, click on ‘The KK (1217);(1217); andand thethe MappaMappa Mundi,Mundi, aa thirteenth-thirteenth- Kidderminster demonstrations are due to take place. around 730 AD.

Property’ and follow the link to ‘Tours’. SS H century interpretation of the world in both H WO

RC Redditch H Warwick Blists Hill Victorian Town, Legges Way, Lichfield Cathedral, Lichfield WS13 7LD

E spiritual and geographical terms. The Hurd Library, Hartlebury Castle, E E

S IIR IronbridgeIronbridge TF7TF7 5DU5DU Phone: + 44 (0) 1543 306100 R

Hartlebury DY11 7XZ R T

Hereford Cathedral, Hereford HR1 2NG E E Phone: + 44 (0) 1952 433424 Website: www.lichfield-cathedral.org

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Phone: + 44 (0) 1432 374202 Phone: + 44 (0) 1299 250883 S 2 F F Website: www.ironbridge.org.uk Website: www.hartleburycastletrust.org H Website: www.herefordcathedral.org OO Stratford-upon-Avon Worcester II LUDLOW R 10 RR NUNEATON MUSEUM EE SAMUEL JOHNSON’S BIRTHPLACE STRATFORD-UPON-AVON D 2 4 Ledbury 8 MUSEUM AND BOOKSHOP AND ART GALLERY 1 SS H Hereford Samuel II R Johnson was E born in the familyfamily homehome above his father’sfather’s bookshop in CHATSWORTH HOUSE, BAKEWELL THE ROOM Lichfield in 1709 © Shropshire & Telford TSB & © Telford Shropshire 5 6 TSB & © Telford Shropshire and, although © The Shakespeare © Birthplace The Trust Shakespeare © Birthplace The Trust Shakespeare © Nuneaton Museum & Art © Gallery Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery Jane Austen When Joseph Gillott he was later to John Betjeman once described Ludlow as We could hardly omit William Shakespeare Mary Ann Evans was born in 1819 on a farm wrote Pride and died in 1873 his move to ‘the‘the lloveliest town in England’; and, many frfrom this issue of History West Midlands.. on the Arbury Hall estate, some two miles Prejudice while in Birmingham pen-making London, the years later, Jeremy Paxman asked: ‘Has Many readers will doubtless have visited south-west of Nuneaton in Warwickshire. Bakewell, in factoryfactory waswas producingproducing towntown clearlyclearly therethere everever beenbeen aa visitorvisitor toto LudlowLudlow whowho © The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-upon- Largely self-educated, she moved to London Derbyshire’s Peak around nine million steel © The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum remained close hasn’t wished they lived there?’ The poet A E Avon. However, there are other places at the age of 31 with the intent of becoming a District. And it is a each week. Ten toto Johnson'sJohnson's heartheart throughoutthroughout hishis life.life. ‘I‘I latelylately Housman, author of the cycle of poems associated with Shakespeare’s life to visit. A writer. Adopting the nom de plume George truthtruth universallyuniversally years later, the tooktook mymy friendfriend Boswell’,Boswell’, hehe wrote,wrote, ‘and‘and entitled A Shropshire Lad,, nevernever livedlived there,there, fewfew hundredhundred metresmetres fromfrom hishis birthplacebirthplace inin thethe Eliot in 1856, and writing seven novels acknowledged (by Birmingham pen trade’s showed him genuine civilised life in an English although his ashes are buried near the centre of Stratford is an exhibition at Nash’s between 1859 and 1876, she became one of © Chatsworth House Trust © Chatsworth House Trust some, at least) weekly output amounted provincial town. I turned him loose at parish church of St Laurence. A couplet from © The Pen Room House, which stands adjacent to the site of thethe leadingleading novelistsnovelists ofof thethe nineteenthnineteenth thatthat sheshe basedbased thethe fictitiousfictitious PemberleyPemberley HouseHouse onon nearbynearby © The Pen Room toto somesome twenty-threetwenty-three Lichfield.’ Now a museum, Johnson’s one of the poems reads: ‘Or come you home Shakespeare’s last home, New Place. Lying a century. The Nuneaton Museum & Chatsworth House. On his retirement from London, the million pens, seventy-five per cent of which were destined birthplace contains a varied mix of displays, of Monday when Ludlow market hums’. short distance from the town centre are two Art Gallery houses an internationally firstfirst DukeDuke ofof DevonshireDevonshire turnedturned ChatsworthChatsworth intointo aa forfor overseasoverseas markets.markets. BirminghamBirmingham waswas thethe centrecentre ofof thethe reconstructed rooms and audio-visual media, Housman would be pleased to know that the other places of interest: the homes of his wife importantimportant collectioncollection relatingrelating toto GeorgeGeorge Eliot.Eliot. sumptuous palace, a key building in the development of world’s pen trade for more than a century, and the all of which chart the life and major market still hums of Mondays… and on – Anne Hathaway – and his daughter, There are over 150 objects in the collection English Baroque architecture - even if it did lie in the phenomenal success of this industry is reflected in the achievements of Lichfield's most famous son, several other days each week. There are Susanna. You might need the car to travel the connected with her life and work: personal midst of what Defoe described as a ‘howling wilderness’. exhibits at the Pen Museum located in Birmingham’s fromfrom troubledtroubled childhood,childhood, throughthrough literaryliterary also periodic Book and Craft Fairs, monthly fourfour milesmiles toto Wilmcote,Wilmcote, wherewhere MaryMary Arden,Arden, and family belongings, commemorative ware, Chatsworth remains one of the ‘must see’ English . As well as discovering the history of the obscurity and financial poverty, to world meetings of the Poetry Café, and the annual Shakespeare’s mother, lived. souvenirs, books, and artwork illustrating country houses. With over thirty rooms open to the pen trade there are activities for the young and the not-so- renown and success. Ludlow Arts Festival includes literature and locallocal placesplaces inin whichwhich herher novelsnovels werewere set.set. public and with five miles of garden paths along which to poetry strands. The Shakespeare Houses, Stratford-upon-Avon young: classes, talks, and writing in code for Samuel Johnson’s Birthplace Museum, wander, it is not difficult to fill the day. Phone: +44 (0)1789 204016 Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery, Riversley juniorjunior spies.spies. Breadmarket Street, Lichfield WS13 6LG Ludlow Visitor Information Centre, Castle Website: www.shakespeare.org.uk – and, to Park, Coton Road, Nuneaton CV11 5TU Chatsworth House, Bakewell DE45 1PP The Pen Museum, 60 Frederick Street, Birmingham B1 3HS Phone: + 44 (0) 1543 264972 Street, Ludlow SY8 1AS book tickets for the Royal Shakespeare Phone: + 44 (0)24 7635 0720 Phone: + 44 (0) 1246 565300 Phone: + 44 (0) 121 236 9834 Website: Phone: +44 (0) 1584 875053 Theatre, go to www.rsc.org.uk Website: www.nuneatonandbedworth.gov.uk Website: www.chatsworth.org Website: www.penroom.co.uk www.samueljohnsonbirthplace.org.uk Website: www.ludlow.org.uk 24 25