Lawrence, D.H.: Day out featured in writer's classic work

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During his early years, D H Lawrence liked nothing better than joining friends for walks in Derbyshire, as Vivienne Smith discovered.

D H Lawrence a year after his 1905 jaunt into the Derbyshire countryside with his friends

Celebrated novelist D H Lawrence may have been a native of Nottinghamshire, but neighbouring Derbyshire was also close to his heart.

As he wrote towards the end of his life: “I was born...in Eastwood, a mining village of some three thousand souls, about eight miles from Nottingham, and one mile from the small stream, the Erewash, which divides Nottinghamshire from Derbyshire.

“It is hilly country, looking west to Crich and towards Matlock. ..and east and north-east towards Mansfield and the Sherwood Forest district.

“To me it seemed, and still seems, an extremely beautiful countryside.”

He knew the landscape well from day trips in his youth.

In fact, one particularly memorable outing even found its way into his fiction.

Born on September 11, 1885, David Herbert Lawrence was the fourth of five children of Nottinghamshire miner Arthur Lawrence.

But thanks to his mother, Lydia, nee Beardsall, the future writer also had Derbyshire blood in his veins.

A former schoolmistress, she was descended from a Wirksworth family. Her paternal grandfather, Robert Beardsall, had moved from the town to Nottingham in the early 19th century when the lace industry took off.

The family went on to make and lose a fortune in the trade.

The Lawrences’ youngest son proved to be a sickly child and was not destined to follow his father down the pit.

On leaving school at 15, he became a junior clerk in a surgical garments factory in Nottingham.

But the premises where he worked long hours, six days a week, had no proper ventilation. After just three months, the teenager became desperately ill with pneumonia.

Local farmer’s daughter Jessie Chambers was one of D H Lawrence’s circle of friends

Following his recovery, he opted for a change of career and found employment at a school in Eastwood as a trainee teacher.

Two years later, in 1904, Lawrence won a place at the Pupil-Teacher Centre in nearby Ilkeston and proceeded to spend half the week studying there for his teacher’s certificate.

They were happy times for the young man. Travelling with him to and from Ilkeston were a lively group of fellow pupil-teachers from Eastwood with whom he became great friends.

They included his younger sister, Ada, and also a local farmer’s daughter, Jessie Chambers, to whom he was later unofficially engaged for several years.

The journey to Ilkeston was made by train. But whenever the weather permitted, the students walked the few miles home together in the afternoon across the Erewash valley.

Walking soon became the group’s favourite leisure-time activity. Lawrence loved to organise days out in the countryside for them all. One outing in particular was destined to remain in everyone’s memories.

Both Ada and Jessie recalled it with affection many years later when each of them wrote a book about the novelist’s life.

The excursion was to Wingfield Manor and took place on April 24, 1905. At 9am, with 19-year-old Lawrence in command, the party of four lads and three girls set off for the station at nearby Langley Mill.

Ada Lawrence wrote about an excursion to Wingfield Manor in a biography on her brother, D H Lawrence

Clutching their veal sandwiches and hot cross buns, they boarded a train for Alfreton. It was a bright sunny Easter Monday and the carriages were packed with bank holiday day-trippers.

On arriving at their destination, Lawrence led the group down the High Street to the church. On the way they passed several local miners dressed in their Sunday best who were out walking their dogs.

At first, the young people were a little unsure about entering a place of worship carrying packed lunches, for fear of being turned out.

Warily, they filed inside.

The parish church of St Martin was beautifully decorated with daffodils, narcissi and lilies for the Easter festival, prompting Lawrence to insist they should sing a hymn together. Ada Lawrence accompanied them on the organ. As she later recalled in her biography Young Lorenzo – the early life of D H Lawrence (1931), her brother “threatened awful punishments if anyone laughed or treated the occasion lightly”.

Following this musical interlude, Lawrence disappeared with the other young men to investigate the belfry.

From Alfreton, the group made tracks for Wingfield Manor, the miner’s son pointing out items of interest as they went.

According to Ada: “Nothing escaped my brother’s notice on the way, however deep in conversation he might be.”

Jessie Chambers made similar observations about him in her book, D H Lawrence: a personal record (1935). “He would walk briskly along with his lithe, light step, tirelessly observant, his eager eyes taking everything in.

Sons and Lovers is based on D H Lawrence’s early life and included a passage about his trip to Wingfield Manor

“Lawrence seemed to have a knowledge of the countryside as he had of flowers; he could tell us something about every place we passed through.”

It was past midday by the time the 15th century manor house was reached. Among the ruins, the party ate their lunch and discussed the history of the site.

Ada later reminisced: “We reviled Cromwell and his men, who had destroyed the manor, and spent a great deal of sympathy on Mary, Queen of Scots, who was imprisoned there.”

For a fee of sixpence, they were allowed to explore the ruin, including the impressive undercroft and the High Tower.

Lawrence clearly loved the old place, although there was one embarrassing moment for Jessie.

As she made her way up the High Tower’s spiral staircase, a gust of wind blew her skirt up.

However, the chivalrous young Lawrence spared her blushes by discreetly catching the hem and holding it down for her.

From Wingfield Manor, the group of friends hiked cross-country to the village of Crich where they paid a visit to Crich Stand.

Perched on top of a quarried-out hill, this well-known local landmark was high enough for Lawrence and his family to see from their garden back in Eastwood. From the top of the memorial tower, the students took in the splendid views across the Derwent Valley.

They then set off on a long walk down through the woods to Whatstandwell, from where they intended to catch the train home.

On arrival, however, it was discovered that the station was locked up for the holiday.

Not only that, everyone was now ravenous.

Putting aside enough money for their return fare, the young people pooled their resources and found they had just 7d between them.

Cash in hand, the ever-resourceful Lawrence went to a nearby cottage and negotiated for some bread and butter. On his return, the others marvelled at how he had managed to get so much for so little.

They ate sitting on a wall near the bridge over the Derwent and looked on as the horse-drawn transport from Matlock pulled up at the inn.

The ruined Wingfield Manor was the destination for D H Lawrence and his friends during an outing in 1905

Fortified by their makeshift meal, and by water from a spring, the party then trekked alongside the river to Ambergate. From there, they caught the train home.

It was more than six years later when Lawrence gave this real-life episode a place in English literature.

By then, he had been forced to abandon his career as a teacher, following another bout of pneumonia which had seen him dangerously ill for several weeks.

The doctor warned him that a return to the rigours of school life would be disastrous for his health.

Having already had some limited success with writing in his spare time, Lawrence decided to make a living as an author instead.

On completing the first draft of what was to become Sons and Lovers, he asked his former girlfriend, Jessie Chambers, for her opinion.

She suggested the novel would be much improved if he included more of the events from his own life. The author agreed.

With the help of Jessie’s memories of their younger days in Eastwood, he rewrote the book.

Packed with detail taken from Lawrence’s early childhood and youth, the resulting novel was semi-autobiographical.

The story is set in the coal-mining village of Bestwood (his native Eastwood in disguise) and centres on a group of young people very like the author’s own circle of friends.

Lawrence based the main character of Paul Morel, a miner’s son, on himself. Other members of the Morel family were inspired by his own parents and siblings.

Meanwhile, Paul’s girlfriend Miriam Leivers was modelled on Jessie Chambers.

Lawrence reproduced the Wingfield excursion in chapter seven of the novel. He changed little except the name of Langley Mill to Sethley Bridge.

St Martin’s Church, Alfreton

When Sons and Lovers was eventually published in May 1913, sales were initially disappointing. Nevertheless, it confirmed the author’s growing reputation.

By the time of Lawrence’s early death from tuberculosis in 1930, the book was the most popular of his works. It went on to become a modern classic.

Sons and Lovers was one of the first English novels to have an authentic working class background.

Within its pages, D H Lawrence succeeded in recreating the life and landscape of the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border at the dawn of the 20th century.

He also immortalised a cherished day out in the Derbyshire countryside to places which still attract sightseers to this day.