DARESBURY: ANOTHER VIEW
by Selwyn Goodacre

When the Lord Daresbury Hotel was first opened, the entrance faced the dual carriageway. I hadn’t been for a number of years – and we were astonished to find the hotel grown out of all proportion, with massive new facilities and a brand new entrance round the back.

A year or so after the hotel was opened, the owners covered over the brilliant Alice mural in the (as then) foyer, with wooden panelling, an act of vandalism that horrified all right thinking Carrollians. Happily this has now been once more revealed in all its glory – though that foyer is now the entrance to the dining room.

The weekend was splendidly organised, as we have rather come to expect from the dynamic Mark Richards and his team, this time assisted by Keith Wright. Once again, there were loads of reading material, booklets and freebies to satisfy all.

Proceedings started at the respectable hour of 3pm on the Friday, with an introductory background talk by Roger Allen, a talk on Carroll’s diary by Ivor Wynne Jones, and a masterly account by Edward Wakeling of Carroll’s second visit to Daresbury. I don't think this has ever been understood properly before.

And so to the Salt Museum at Northwich. This was quite a revelation, the attendant slide presentation was illuminating – and gave us the right sort of basic background knowledge to the history of the area. We moved to the board room to hear two further talks: one a rather abstruse essay by Kate Lyon on the deeper meaning of Lewis Carroll’s dream state. I commend members to read this in the booklet version, in order to follow the force of her argument. Keith Wright talked to us about the Cheshire of Carroll’s time, and Michaela Kay (the Daresbury Alice) read us Carroll’s poem about his childhood.

In the same board room we then enjoyed a splendid buffet meal before returning to the hotel for a light hearted quiz run by Mark Richards, which evoked much hilarity and brought the day to a happy close.

Saturday saw us again enjoying talks – chiefly a double act by Keith Wright and Maurice Taylor on the Ripon connections, and the display of a book of Victorian photographs of clerical and other dignitaries. Sadly, the photos turned out not to be by Dodgson. David Shaefer whetted our appetites with a report of recent discoveries and research in the States.

We then moved on to a visit to the Parsonage site and Walton Hall, where there was the unexpected added delight of a small, but classy, Carroll exhibition. Then, in true Dodgson Senior fashion, we embarked on a trip up the Bridgewater Canal, during which lunch was served. It was all a bit of a squash, and perhaps the view was a little difficult to achieve, but fellowship was good. I would have valued a little more explanation and viewing of just where Dodgson Senior’s chapel was meant to have been sited.

In the afternoon we all visited the Daresbury Village fete. This was wonderfully evocative of a way of life we are in danger of losing. Society members were seen making a beeline for the bookstall, and some of us even had a ride on the model railway. Edward Wakeling, utterly transformed into a Mad Hatter, held all in thrall at his special Carroll Puzzle tent.

Eventually, we boarded the coach for the Church, leaving half the organisers behind, weeping with frustration. Kenn Oultram was briefed to talk to us about the Church and the history of the famous window. Instead, for reasons best known to himself, he regaled us with anecdotes of his years as a Carroll enthusiast. Entertaining yes, but not quite what we had been expecting.

Back at the hotel we enjoyed a fine dinner, followed by some heartfelt words from Anne Amor, and a poetry reading by Alan White.

Sunday morning saw most of us fittingly attending morning service at the Parish Church, before a quiet return to the Hotel for a really excellent lunch.
Interspersed throughout the weekend were raffles, bookstalls, further printed booklets and handouts, and special bargain boxes (well worth a good rooting through, as I found to my profit), plus lots of informed chat, plans, and general fine fellowship. 

A weekend to be savoured.

ALL SAINTS PARISH CHURCH, DARESBURY
by Roger Allen

On Saturday, 29 June, at about 5 o’clock in the afternoon, 35 or so members of the Lewis Carroll Society all wandered into All Saints Parish Church, Daresbury. After looking around for a short while, we were called to sit down in the pews and listen to Kenn Oultram, of the Daresbury Lewis Carroll Society, who spoke to us in general terms about the Church and Lewis Carroll but mostly regaled us with anecdotes of the times he had spent with other members of the Lewis Carroll Society.

After a while, the Revd. David Felix, Vicar of Daresbury took over and spoke to us in more detail about the church and his responsibilities there. He serves not only Daresbury but also the villages of Hatton, Moore, Preston Brook and Sandymoor. There are no other Anglican Church buildings in these villages but services are held in various halls and chapels and so he is kept very much on his toes at the weekends. Varied as these out-stations may be, Revd. Felix has not yet seen fit to start a bargees’ chapel on the canal. He continued on to say how important the Lewis Carroll connection was to the church and to the people of Daresbury. He drew attention to the large number of visitors to Daresbury Church each year, who come simply because of that connection. 

The ladies of the church were also very welcoming to us, with tea, coffee and biscuits, as well as running a sales counter of Daresbury and Alice ephemera, postcards and guide books of the Church. The little guide book they were selling dates from 1987 and is not the much reprinted booklet by Revd. Victor Dams dating originally from 1937.

The following day about seventeen members of the Society attended the 10.30am sung communion at All Saints. Revd. Felix was there and took part in the service, and indeed he heartily welcomed the members of the Lewis Carroll Society as the service commenced. Much of the service, however, was taken by the Revd. Dr Peter Povey, who is the non-stipendiary curate of Daresbury. Dr Povey took holy orders only after his retirement from his professional career and his assistance in the widespread parish must be invaluable. He also gave the sermon, which was very short and to the point. He took as his theme our own personal roles in the church. He led the prayers after the sermon during which he prayed for the Lewis Carroll Society and its work. Many of us at that moment must have thought how much the Society needs his prayers during the difficult time through which we are now passing.

After the service there was ample time to look around the church again. At the eastern end of the South aisle is the Daniell Chapel, named after an ancient family associated with Daresbury. The chapel was previously and perhaps more appropriately called the Chadwick Chapel after the family that occupied Daresbury Hall for centuries and whose memorials are in the chapel. The chapel is separated from the rest of the South Aisle by a post-war glass screen that does very little for the church or for the view of the Lewis Carroll window. Revd. Felix would like to see a radical change in this.

The most important aspect of the Daniell Chapel, of course, is the Lewis Carroll window in the east wall of the chapel. This was erected in 1934 and was the gift of many subscribers both from the United Kingdom and, it is stated, from the United States of America. The window was dedicated on 30 June, 1934 by Dr Gresford Jones, Bishop of Warrington. The window was designed and made by Geoffrey Webb of Manchester, whose personal ‘logo’ of a tiny spider’s web can be found in the bottom right corner of the window, just above the head of the Queen of Hearts. Webb is said to have researched his design in great detail, although his reasons for choosing some of the subject matter remain obscure.

The main scenes are in the five large lights in the lower half of the window. The principal subject, occupying the central three of these lights, is the Adoration of the Babe of Bethlehem. The Holy Family are in the central light and the shepherds kneel in the lights at either side. This scene presumably reflects the love of children that Dodgson revealed all his life. In the light on the far left, we see Dodgson himself kneeling in prayer, emulating the shepherds’ worship. His features and hairstyle are immediately recognisable and the face must have been taken from some photograph. At his side stands a not over-pretty Alice, clasping her hands together somewhat nervously. In the light on the far right we have the likeness of St Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals, with a wolf standing behind him. The connection of St Francis, and indeed his wolf, with Lewis Carroll would seem rather tenuous but perhaps the appearance of so many animals and birds in the Alices was sufficient justification to include St Francis in the window. The attitude of St Joseph in this window holding his lamp and leaning slightly forward, has been said to resemble the painting of Christ in Holman Hunt’s ‘Light of the World’.

At the base of these five principal lights are characters from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, after Tenniel. From left to right they include the following: beneath Dodgson and Alice we see the White Rabbit, Bill the Lizard and the Dodo; beneath the shepherds we find the Caterpillar and Fish Footman; beneath the Holy Family we have the Hatter, the Dormouse in the teapot and the March Hare; beneath the other shepherds we see the Duchess, the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle; under Saint Francis we have the Knave of Hearts and the Queen of Hearts, pointing at the head of the Cheshire Cat and shouting ‘Off with his head’.

Above these principal scenes we have eight small lights each with an angel bearing a musical instrument. Although Dodgson did attend musical events, both of a lighter and classical nature, music is not the first aspect of his life that we would think of and the reason for including these musical angels must be obscure. In the very small lights above the angels are symbols of Dodgson’s life: the wheatsheaf representing Cheshire, his birthplace, two shields representing Rugby School and Christ Church, and a pair of compasses and the Lamp of Learning, symbolic of his work in mathematics and logic.

There are various inscriptions in the window, each one above the Tenniel characters described above. They include the details of his years and other facts: ‘In memory of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) author of Alice in Wonderland’. ‘He was born at Daresbury Parsonage, Jan. 27 1832 and died at Guildford Jan. 14 1898.’ Beneath the cradle of the Holy Child appears the first lines of his poem A Christmas Greeting:– ‘We have heard the children say, Gentle children whom we love, Long ago on Christmas Day, Came a message from above.’

Also in the Daniell Chapel is an oaken cupboard cum table with a glass showcase on top. Within this glass case is the memorial album containing the names of the subscribers to the window. The book is dated 1932 and the front page lists most of Dodgson’s better known works. We observed that the majority of subscribers, though not all, were local names, who probably gave only small sums. Lord Daresbury and members of his family appear towards the end of the list, just included amongst all the other names. The Revd. Dams, mentioned above, who wrote the 1937 booklet on Daresbury, appears as one of the subscribers from London. Although it states that there were subscribers from the USA, a perusal of the pages of the book failed to find any names specifically mentioning the United States.

Within and without the church there are several other memorials of interest to the Carrollian. On the wall of the north aisle there is a memorial tablet to The Revd. George Heron, 1805 to 1894. He was a local landowner and a friend of the Dodgson family and it was he who baptised Charles Lutwidge Dodgson on 11 July 1832. This memorial also commemorates Heron’s wife Catherine Hopwood Heron. On the same wall are memorials to other members of the Heron family: Peter Heron of Moore Hall, who died in 1848 and his wife Catherine; also their daughters Catherine and Mary Felicity. Further along the wall is yet a third Heron memorial – to a George Heron who died in 1780. The Heron family vault is to be found in the churchyard beside the tower. These old memorials and many others were carefully retained and placed in these positions after 1872 when the church was rebuilt.

In 1860 on his nostalgia trip to Daresbury, Lewis Carroll took a photograph of Mary Houghton. Mary, born in 1822, was previously Mary Cliffe and was named as a servant in the Daresbury parsonage in the census of 1841. Her husband, Thomas Houghton, was a shoemaker in Daresbury and parish clerk for fifty years, missing only one meeting in all that time. Mary Houghton’s grave is in the churchyard and it states that she died in 1880. Her brother Samuel, also recorded on the 1841 census listing of the parsonage, is described as a shoemaker’s apprentice, and so the relationship between Mary and Thomas Houghton may already have been blossoming at that stage.

Also in the churchyard is the gravestone of Phoebe Thomas, born in 1812, whom Dodgson describes as formerly a servant at Daresbury, although she does not appear on the 1841 census list. He took a photograph of her during his 1860 visit to Daresbury. She first married Joseph Bostock in 1840, and he died after giving her one daughter. She then married James Irwin in 1851 and he died in 1861. She herself died in 1882 and, remarkably, the gravestone records not only herself, but also both of her husbands.

The church building itself is in the normal cruciform shape and built, in the main, of local red sandstone. Except for the tower, which dates from the sixteenth century, the whole of the rest of the church was demolished and completely rebuilt in 1872. The much more austere interior of the old church with its boxed pews and altogether lower arches and roof, that the Dodgsons would have known, has completely disappeared. The pulpit, dating from 1625, was originally set very high up in the church above the already high chancel screen and was on three tiers. Together with the chancel screen, it has since been reduced in size and both are still in use. One of the carved figures on this pulpit is in the form of a gryphon, or at least a winged creature of some kind, and inevitably the myth has developed that Lewis Carroll had the idea for the Gryphon in Alice in Wonderland from this carving.

In the bell tower is a poem inscribed on a board admonishing bellringers to arrive at the church in a suitable frame of mind. It dates from the 18th century and is an acrostic poem with the first letter of each line making up the name Daresbury. As with the gryphons, it has been said that this poem gave Lewis Carroll the idea of using acrostic poems in his works and letters later in life.
During our tour of the outside of the church we noticed high on the tower wall, a stone with the impossible date of 1110 carved in it. This we are told was originally 1550 but re-carved with these erroneous figures in the seventeen hundreds. Over a doorway leading to the cellars there is the much more acceptable date of 1870. When finally leaving the church we were surprised to see a stone, set in the wall by the gate leading onto the street, with the apparent date of 1628 carved in it. The style of the carving was almost certainly Victorian and Roger Puddephat suggested that it could have been a discarded marker stone from one of the canals that passes through the parish, and reused in the construction of the wall around the graveyard.

The original ancient 16th century font, in use during Dodgson’s time in Daresbury and in which he was baptised, is now found outside in the churchyard, close to the main entrance. The 19th century font in use inside the church has a most unusual cover, which is raised by a counterbalanced weighted pulley fixed to the ceiling. This type of mechanism is normally only found in cathedrals and large city churches.

In each of the Lewis Carroll Society weekend events over the past years, visits to churches and cathedrals have formed a principal part of the weekend. Daresbury has proved to be no exception to that rule, and indeed that is as it should be, knowing, as we do, that the Church formed such a fundamental part of the life of Lewis Carroll.