JANE AUSTEN'S LYME REGIS

Jane Austen's novel Persuasion, which tells the story of love lost and refound, is set largely in the leafy countryside of the West Country, and in the elegant town of Bath.  However, the most dramatic scene in the novel, and the most pivotal to the story, takes place in Lyme Regis, where one of the characters has a nasty accident on The Cobb, the sturdy stone quay which encloses one side of the town's harbour, and is forced to extend her stay there while recovering from the incident.  Even today it is easy to imagine such an accident; I had to exercise great caution walking up and down the Cobb's steps on a recent visit.  In fact there is one set of steps on the Cobb nicknamed "granny's teeth", presumably for their unevenness.  

The Cobb

Lyme Regis, one of the loveliest towns on the Jurassic Coast, so named for the rich fossil content in its cliffs, is an attractive small resort, with a harbour and beach area backed by restaurants and pubs. The town is very hilly, and every street seems to offer a view of the sea.  This was well illustrated by Jane Austen in Persuasion, when she described "the principal street almost hurrying into the water".  However, she was less charitable about the architecture, declaring that "there is nothing to admire in the buildings themselves", a fact I would personally dispute, especially in the case of the lovely little promenade lined with elegant Georgian buildings.

The seafront, with views towards Golden Cap

In Jane Austen's era Lyme Regis was a fashionable place to head for during the summer season (although the action in Persuasion takes place in November, "too late in the year for any amusement or variety").  Those who wanted to take to the water had bathing machines at their disposal.  The machines were hired by the hour and were wheeled out to sea by an attendant.  Sea bathing in those days was not just for fun: it was widely believed that a dip in the briny would cure a range of illnesses.  Dances were held in the Assembly Rooms, sadly now gone and occupied by a car park on the seafront at the bottom of the main street.  As for Jane herself, she is known to have enjoyed at least two summer breaks in the town, in 1803 and 1804, and she evidently became very fond of it, judging from her affectionate descriptions of Lyme and the surrounding area, talking of "high grounds and extensive sweeps of country" and "its sweet, retired bay".  She visited the Assembly Rooms on her second visit, and in a letter to a relative described how she was passed over for the first two dances, but danced with a Mr. Crawford for the second two.  There is an unassuming building in the main street called Pyne House which is believed to have been the one where Jane Austen stayed.

Pyne House

Jane Austen fans who want to follow in her footsteps can join a walking tour courtesy of Literary Lyme, who also do French Lieutenant's Woman tours for fans of John Fowles whose novel of the same name was largely set in the town.  

Lyme Regis is on a regular bus service between Weymouth and Exeter, but does not have a train station.  The nearest station is at Axminster, while Weymouth is reachable by a direct rail service from London.  

Official Tourist Information website.

Map of the town.

ABOUT A BOY: CLERKENWELL

In 1998 a book called 'About A Boy' by the popular British author Nick Hornby appeared on the shelves, and quickly turned into a bestseller.  The story was an unusual but heartwarming tale about an unlikely friendship which develops between a spoilt young man called Will (played by Hugh Grant), who lives a life of leisure courtesy of the royalties from a hit song by his father, and an awkward young boy called Marcus, whose mother, a suicidal hippy vegetarian, dresses him in strange clothes making him a magnet for the school bullies.  Will has a creative way of meeting women involving posing as the father of a fictitious two year old at a single parents' group, and it is this that leads to him meeting the boy of the title and his mother and reluctantly becoming  the lad's mentor in life. 

The film made use of a number of locations around London, but many of the crucial scenes were filmed in Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington.  The epicentre of Will's life - his hi-tech apartment - was located in St James Walk; for the purposes of the film a false entrance was specially added to the side entrance of numbers 16-18.  The meeting place for the single parents' group was filmed at Woodbridge Chapel.  Meanwhile, in one of the early scenes, Will briefly considers volunteering at a drop-in centre.  The building whose exterior was used to represent the centre in the film was St James's Church.  

Clerkenwell Green - geograph.org.uk - 650865. Photo by Colin Smith, via Wikimedia Commons.

The name Clerkenwell derives from Clerk's Well: the term "clerk" dates from the Middle Ages, and means a literate person or clergyman.  The well in question is still visible today, albeit as part of a modern building called Well Court on Farringdon Lane.  The district's former existence as a village is evident in the presence of an area known as Clerkenwell Green, which survives to this day, although it is some time since the "Green" actually had any grass.  Clerkenwell has a long and varied history.  During the Crusades, the Knights Hospitallers used Clerkenwell Priory as their Headquarters.  Later, in the 17th century when Clerkenwell became a fashionable place to live, the area's distinguished residents included Oliver Cromwell, who owned a house on Clerkenwell Close.  Around this time, several spas opened up, turning Clerkenwell into something of a resort for the well-to-do.  Tea gardens and theatres provided additional diversion, including Sadler's Wells Theatre, which survives to this day, albeit in a much more modern form.  During the Industrial Revolution a number of breweries, distilleries and printing works sprang up in the area, in fact the oldest printing company in the world, Witherby's, is based in Clerkenwell.  During the post-war period the district's industry went into a decline, and the 1980s saw a period of "gentrification", with affluent professionals moving in, along with a number of upmarket restaurants.

As for the buildings used in About A Boy, Woodbridge Chapel was built in the 1830s for Independent Calvinists, then later in that century it was bought by John Groom, who provided employment for disabled girls making artificial flowers, and the chapel became known as the Watercress and Flower Girls Christian Mission.  Later the chapel was transformed into the Clerkenwell and Islington Medical Mission.  Now it is the Clerkenwell Christian Centre.  The site occupied by St James's Church was the location of the springs which gave Clerkenwell its name.  In the 12th century a nunnery was founded there, which fell victim to the dissolution under the reign of Henry VIII.  In the 16th century the nunnery's church became the Old Church of St James, and its existence proved somewhat precarious, with the steeple falling down twice in 1623.  The New Church of St James dates from 1792.  The interior includes some impressive rococo work, particulary the carved drapery over the organ pipes.  There is a wooden figure of St James over the west door of the Nave. 

Clerkenwell has been used in a number of other well-known films, with one building in particular proving popular with film-makers: the George Farmiloe building at 34 St John Street, dating from 1868 and formerly used as a warehouse for the George Farmiloe and Sons lead and glass company.  Three of the Batman films featured the building as the Gotham City Police Department: Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).  The building also played a pharmacy in the 2010 Leonardo di Caprio film Inception.  Meanwhile, over on TV, the Farmiloe building was used as a safe house in an episode of Spooks.

Clerkenwell, Former George Farmiloe Building, St John Street, EC1 - geograph.org.uk - 756323. Photo by Nigel Cox, via Wikimedia Commons.

 Map of the area.

VILLAGE LIFE: THE PEAK DISTRICT

Approaching Derbyshire from the south, skirting around the massive urban sprawl that is Birmingham, the beer-soaked town of Burton Upon Trent, and the cathedral city of Derby itself, it comes as something of a surprise to suddenly find oneself in the Derbyshire Peak District National Park, which in the south is characterised by rolling hills and dales, while the High Peak in the north is all dramatic, windswept uplands.  Nestled among all this scenic splendour are a range of villages and small towns, several of which were used in the filming of the BBC drama The Village starring Maxine Peake and John Simm, which chronicles the life of a fictional village amid the changing social and political landscape of the early 20th century.  The first series covered the period up to 1920, but there are plans for subsequent series taking the viewer further into the century.

The main village used in the series is Hayfield in the north-west of the national park, which lies at the foot of Kinder Scout, a moorland plateau which includes, at 636 metres above sea level, the highest point in the Peak District.  The village was on the old packhorse route from Cheshire to Yorkshire.  With the arrival of cotton in the 19th century the village spread down the Sett Valley and into Birch Vale.  The village has a range of specialist shops, seven pubs and good walking routes.  Once an important industrial centre, the village is now considered a desirable place to live, with property prices reflecting its popularity.  Each year in May there is a May Queen procession, while nearby Little Hayfield hosts sheepdog trials.  Locations in Hayfield which feature in the series include The Old Vicarage, The Royal Hotel, the cricket club and the Library.  Hayfield's other TV connection is that it was the birthplace of Arthur Lowe, who played Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army, while at Little Hayfield the Lantern Pike pub was a favourite of Tony Warren, creator of Coronation Street, who used to work on writing the episodes while enjoying a pint or two at the pub.

Hayfield, Derbyshire from the northwest. Photo by Dave Dunford, via Wikimedia Commons.

Edale is another attractive Derbyshire village, and its main claim to fame is that it is at the southern end of the Pennine Way.  The village is on a railway line, and its station was used in The Village.  Edale is also where some of the farm scenes were filmed.   There is a Peak District NationalPark Visitor Centre in Edale.  Another location used in the series is Chapel-en-le-Frith, whose French-sounding name derives from the fact that the original settlement was founded by Normans in the 12th century for the purpose of hunting.  The Normans also built the town's first chapel, now the Church of St Thomas Becket.  The town's Playhouse Theatre was used as the village theatre in the series.  The church in the fictional TV village was actually a church in Glossop.  The Middleton Farm which formed the centrepiece of the drama was represented by Far Coombes Farm in Charlesworth.  Further afield in Cheshire, Tatton Park Farm, which forms part of Tatton Park Estate in Knutsford, was also used in the series.  

Edale - geograph.org.uk - 250254. Photo by Stephen Burton, via Wikimedia Commons.

Further information about the Peak District National Park can be found here.