LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS WITH ELIZABETH GASKELL

BY THOMAS BESWICK

Heathwaite and Heath House

Knutsford is the original of Mrs. Gaskell's 'Cranford'. It is described as 'Hollingford' in 'Wives and Daughters', where it is 'the little, straggling town close to the entrance lodge of a great park, where lived my Lord and Lady Cumnor - The Earl and Countess, as they were called by the townspeople.' This reference is to Lord and Lady Egerton, and the entrance lodge and gates of Tatton Park are still at the North end of King Street. The old town of Knutsford is described as 'Dulcombe' in 'Mrs. Harrison's Confessions'; as 'Eltham' in 'Cousin Phillis; as 'Hamley' in 'A Dark Night's Work' and as 'Bamford' in 'The Squire's Tale'.

Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson was born on 29th September 1810, in Lindsey Row, now numbered 3 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London; and was the daughter of Elizabeth and William Stevenson, her father being keeper of the records to the Treasury. In November, 1811, she was brought, a motherless baby of 12 months old, her mother having died a month before, by stage coach to Knutsford to the house of her aunt, Mrs. Hannah Lumb, by a Mrs. Whittington. This journey is said to have suggested the incident in Mrs. Gaskell's novel 'Mary Barton' where two grandfathers brought their motherless grand- daughter from London by stagecoach and whether this is so or not the parallel is striking.

Heathwaite, 17 Gaskell Avenue

Mrs. Lumb, her mother's sister, lived at the tall brick house known as Heathwaite, Gaskell Avenue (or Heathside). This house overlooks the Knutsford Heath, which is still some thirty acres in extent. The Heath during Mrs. Gaskell's time was open to the road, being railed in 1887 (see Fayne's 'Knutsford' pages 30-31). When Elizabeth Gaskell first came to Knutsford in 1811, the Heath was not divided as it is today into the Big Heath and the Little Heath, but was one large tract of land. In Mrs. Gaskell's time, a successful race course with a fine grandstand was maintained on the Heath. Races were held annually in July from 1729 to 1857, after which the grandstand was pulled down.

Heath House, Gaskell Avenue

On the western boundary of Heathwaite was situated The White House, now known as Heath House, whose secret passages gave rise to many legends. Here lived for several years the notorious Highwayman, Edward Higgins. The highwayman is portrayed in Mrs. Gaskell's novel 'The Squire's Tale'. Heath House was in 1741 and for many years after, known as the Cann Office, where weights and measures of the county were officially tested, and where William Pitt, Prime Minister of England, visited his relative, Charles Cholmondeley, as a youth. Higgins was married at the Parish Church and his wife and two children are buried in

the churchyard. The old Girls School, locally known as Lady Mary's School, is described in 'Wives and Daughters' as being outside the gates of Cumnor Towers, in which Miss Cynthia took so great an interest.

Academic year 2009/2010
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Natalia Quintana Morán
naquinmo@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press

Knutsford Cheshire / Virtual Knutsford for all you need to konw about Knutsford.

19 Septiembre de 2009, 17:14

URL: http://www.virtual-knutsford.co.uk/frameset.php?main=/gaskell_main.htm

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