Structual
Maps of Eastwood and the Eastwood area in 1900 (click on the images to view larger versions of the maps).
Lawrence’s works are heavily autobiographical and ‘the experiences of his early years in Nottinghamshire continued to exert a profound influence throughout his life.’ The following books provide detailed guides to the area:
- Bailey, S. and Nottingham, C., Heartlands: A Guide to D.H. Lawrence's Midlands Roots, Kibworth, Leicestershire: Troubador Publishing, 2013
- Pugh, B. L., The Country of My Heart: A Local Guide to D. H. Lawrence (3rd edition), Beeston, Nottinghamshire: Broxtowe Borough Council, 1991
Eastwood
The area around Eastwood provides the main settings for his ‘Midlands’ novels, namely The White Peacock, Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and features to a lesser extent in Aaron’s Rod, Mr Noon, The Lost Girl and many of his short stories. Lawrence famously described the area ‘The Country of my Heart.’
Lawrence’s homes in Eastwood
Lawrence was born at 8a Victoria Street on 11th September 1885. It is now the D H Lawrence Birthplace Museum. More information about the museum and opening hours are available on the D H Lawrence Birthplace Museum website.
The Lawrence family subsequently moved to other properties in the town:
- ‘The Breach’, now known as 28 Garden Road (1887-1891)
- 3 Walker street, now known as 8 Walker Street (1891-1905)
- 97 Lynn Croft (1905-1912)
Hagg’s Farm
Hagg's Farm in the 1920s.
Hagg’s Farm, near Underwood, was the home of the Chambers family and Lawrence was a frequent visitor to it from 1901 to 1908. The family, the farm and the surrounding countryside provided the inspiration for his first novel, The White Peacock, and later Sons and Lovers. The farm buildings have been demolished but the farmhouse remains. It is on private land and access is not permitted.
Further information is available on the Haggs Farm Preservation Society website and photographs of the farm can be seen on Flickr.
Other buildings
Congregational Chapel in the 1920s
42 Moorgreen Road, Moorgreen
- The Mechanics Institute, where Lawrence and Jessie went every week to use the library, stands at the top of Mansfield Road and is now a snooker club
- The Congregational Chapel (the ‘Congo’) on Albert Street, at which the Lawrences were regular worshippers, was demolished in the 1970s (along with adjacent British School where he worked as a pupil teacher from 1902 to 1906) and the site is now occupied by a supermarket
- Beauvale School on Dovecote Road where Lawrence received his elementary schooling is now disused
- 42 Moorgreen Road, Moorgreen is now a semi-derelict cottage but was once occupied by Will and May Holbrook (nee Chambers). Lawrence often visited the cottage when he returned to Eastwood from Croydon. It is also where he carried on his affair with Frieda Weekly in April 1912 before they departed for Germany and also where, in the same month, he met Jessie Chambers for the last time.
- The Barber Walker colliery offices (now known as Durban House) on the corner of Mansfield Road and Greenhills Road is where Lawrence went to collect his father’s weekly earnings
Lawrence family grave
The Lawrence family grave is located in Eastwood Cemetery.
Family members buried here are William Ernest Lawrence ('Born July 22nd. 1878,
Died October 11th. 1901'), Lydia ('wife of
Arthur Lawrence, Born July 19th. 1852,
Died Dec. 9th. 1910'), and Arthur ('Died Sept. 10th. 1924, Aged 77 years').
D H Lawrence is commemorated at the bottom of the grave marker:
Also David Herbert Lawrence,
Beloved Son Of The Above,
Novelist, Poet and Painter.
Born Sept. 11th. 1885
Died at Vence, Mar. 2nd. 1930.
Unconquered
Cossall
Church cottage
Home of Louisa Burrows to whom Lawrence got engaged shortly before his mother's death in December 1910. The engagement lasted until the following year when he called it off. Louisa (commonly known as 'Louie') met him at the Ilkeston Pupil-Teacher Centre in 1905 and lived here until 1908 when the family moved away.
Nottingham
Nottingham High School, c.1910
Nottingham University College, c.1905
Nottingham High School
Lawrence won a scholarship to Nottingham High School in 1898 and attended the school until 1901 when he took up employment as a clerk in a surgical goods firm, Haywood’s in Castle Gate, Nottingham.
Nottingham University College
Lawrence passed his scholarship exam for Nottingham University College in 1905 but lack of money meant he had to postpone starting college until the following year. He left in 1908 without taking his degree (because he could not afford to carry on studying) and was offered a teaching job in Croydon.