TINKER BELL FLIES BACK
Famous chime returns to Peter Pan creator’s home town
Its ring is clear enough that when it was rung in a room full of people, it brought everyone to attention
THE original Tinker Bell is to fly back into the spotlight.
A diminutive Swiss bell, bought by Scottish writer JM Barrie, creator of
Peter Pan, produced the sound of the mischievous faerie when his world-famous tale was first staged in London more than 100 years ago.
Now that bell, a piece of theatrical and literary history, is to return to the Scottish town that inspired Barrie’s tales of Pan, Wendy, the Lost Boys and the world of Neverland.
It will take pride of place in a historic house in Dumfries, in the newly created National Centre for Children’s Literature and Storytelling.
The centre is based in a house, Moat Brae, whose gardens the young Barrie played in as a teenager and whose surroundings inspired his most famous work.
The house and gardens are due to re-open to the public next spring following the completion of a £6.5 million redevelopment.
The bell, one of a pair, was specifically picked by Barrie on a trip to Switzerland. Only about an inch tall, it has a “clear and distinctive” ring that could be heard in a large and noisy room.
When the play was first staged at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, in 1904, the faerie was represented by a light and the sound of the bell.
After the production, one of the bells was given to the theatre’s foreman,
Elias Elias.
It was then handed down the Elias family as a treasured family heirloom.
Recently, his grand-daughter got in touch with the Moat Brae initiative, and now the bell will be on show at the centre when it opens next year.
It will be housed in a case, the project director Cathy Agnew said, and will also form part of an interactive display for children.
She said: “It is an object of such real significance for us, and for Moat Brae, and part of how we want people to respond to the place in the same way that JM Barrie responded to the house.
“We want people visiting us to be as inspired as he was.”
She added: “He tried all sorts of bells in Switzerland, and its ring is extremely clear, clear enough that when it was rung in a room full of people, it brought everyone to attention, despite its size.”
Simon Davidson, Moat Brae’s centre director, said: “It’s quite magical to have the original Tinker Bell here at
Moat Brae.
“It’s a very special piece of literary and theatrical history and I’m sure people will be charmed to see, and hear, the actual bell JM Barrie chose to represent a character who came to be loved by generations of children all across the world.”
Barrie lived in Dumfries from the age of 13 to 17, and played in the garden at Moat Brae.
He said of his time there: “I think the five years or so that I spent here were probably the happiest of my life, for indeed I have loved this place.”
His first work of fiction was a “log book” recording the games of pirates and adventure that he played there under the name of Sixteen String Jack.
He attended the nearby Dumfries Academy and enjoyed his first experiences in staged productions at Dumfries Theatre Royal.
Ms Agnew has been part of the project to save Moat Brae since 2009, when the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust was established to save the house and its garden from demolition, and to establish the location as the “birthplace of Peter Pan”.
She said the addition of the bell will be another draw to the house, which she said has ambitions to attract international as well as UK visitors to the town.
Ms Agnew added: “Wherever you go in the world, the story of Peter Pan is known.
“During the Commonwealth Games
[in Glasgow] we had children from 12 countries and they were all interested and knew about Peter Pan and
JM Barrie.
“We are hoping, with our education and outreach programme, to have a lot of visitors from Scotland, but also further afield. Many international visitors have been in touch already.”
The decade-long project to save Moat Brae has been run by the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust, whose patron is actress
Joanna Lumley.
The large house was bought by a Henry Gordon in 1863. A banker and solicitor, he had two sons, Henry and Stewart, who grew up there and attended the nearby Dumfries Academy, where they became friends with Barrie.
Barrie was born in Kirriemuir, Angus, in 1860, but had been schooled at Glasgow Academy, Forfar Academy, and then Dumfries.
At this time, Barrie was living with his elder brother in a house a few hundred yards from Moat Brae.
As well as attending school, the friends played in the garden of the house, which Barrie later said was “an enchanted land” for him, laying seeds for what would become Neverland.
Moat Brae remained in the ownership of the Gordon family until 1906.
Afterwards, the house passed through several hands, being at one time a nursing home, until it was nearly demolished in 2009, before being saved by the Trust.