Book a place on town heritage walk
HINCKLEY and District Museum has developed a brand new walk around Hinckley’s literary past, to coincide with the Heritage Open days.
The walk, which will take place on Saturday September 9, 2.30pm from outside Barclays Bank in the Market Place, will be a voyage of literary discovery in the company of well-known local historian Greg Drozdz.
Mr Drozdz said: “Some writers have dubbed Hinckley boring or dull.
“Yet there is a vibrant literary past that remains to be discovered. Yes, people point to the town being mentioned in Shakespeare but they do not realise that beyond that there is a realm of authors and poets – some commercially successful, some widely read and yes some even a little avant garde.”
Mr Drozdz continued: “Along the way we’ll meet a bank manager who was a poet, an ironmonger’s shop assistant’s daughter who became a novelist, a poet who climbed a steeple, an Oxford educated Old Hinckleyan and we’ll throw in a little of George Eliot for good measure – yes, George Eliot in Hinckley!”.
The walk is free to all participants but Mr Drozdz will be asking for a donation to the museum towards their building extension fund.
Mr Drozdz has been guiding walks around Hinckley since 1995, in aid of the Museum. He has conducted numerous ghost walks and recently trialled another new walk around the town, looking at aspects of the First World War, in conjunction with other historians Sue Mackrell and David McCormack.
Mr Drozdz added: “The walk is part of the museum’s contribution to Heritage Open Days which we have been a part of for many, many years.
“We are always looking for new ways to involve more and more people in the heritage of the town and this walk hopefully will attract those who want to know more about an unheralded aspect of the town’s past” Charlotte Mary Brame (1 November 1836 – 25 November 1884) was an English novelist.
She was born in Hinckley, Leicestershire, to Benjamin and Charlotte Agnes Law, devout Roman Catholics. After attending convent schools in Bristol and Preston and a finishing school in Paris, she worked as a governess before marrying Phillip Edward Brame (1839–1886), a Londonbased jeweller, on 7 January 1863.
The couple had nine children, of which four lived to adulthood. Since Brame was a poor businessman and a drunkard, Charlotte found herself forced to support the family with her writing.
Her books were very successful with the public, but her earnings were severely diminished by piracy.