John Clare

John Clare's childhood home

Judith Allnatt's recent novel The Poet's Wife was a shortlisted contender for the East Midlands Book Award. Along with Adam Foulds' recent The Quickening Maze, it shows how powerful the legacy of John Clare still is, and how writers are drawn to his unique and tragic story as a stimulus for their own creativity.

What's less well known is that John Clare's childhood home is now open to the public -  restored by a new literary Trust which pledges to work with education and the environment as well as keeping the Helpston cottage as a lasting memorial to the man and his work.
Book groups who've recently read The Poets Wife could do a lot worse than take a trip down to Helpston on the Cambridgeshire border, to find out more about the poet and his world. For Leftlion readers it's just a quick whizz down the A1 as far as Stamford, where you turn onto the old Peterborough road (B1443) which takes you past the gates of Burghley House where John Clare once worked as a gardener. Helpston is 7miles/14km further on; if you go over the railway crossing, you've missed it.

So, what’s to see once you get there? Education officer Lynn (alias Shoestring poet Rennie Parker) tells us briefly about it. ‘The Cottage is actually four tenancies knocked together -  the Clare family only lived in one section of the building, but the rest of the space makes up the complete museum, with displays and reconstructed rooms. We’ve got personal items like notebooks and the family grandfather clock... but I like his shoes best, they’re massive -  and he was only 5ft 1!’ A lifesized statue in the courtyard testifies to his diminutive height, and people are amazed. In fact, their children are often bigger than he was.

A year round programme keeps both Education Outreach officers busy, covering the East Mids. and the eastern counties with schools workshops and incoming tours. But there are author evenings and events too, and the museum itself is still being developed, with a restored Victorian cottage garden looked after by a team of volunteers. As no heritage site is complete without a cafe, they’ve got one of those as well -  if there was a national scone award, Lynn thinks they’d probably win it.

‘The Cottage has only been open a couple of years’ she says ‘So we’re not finished yet. But we’re helped along by the sudden arrival of books featuring Clare... people become engrossed in the story, they want to see where the real thing happened. And we’re definitely an atmospheric location for writing workshops, or for anyone who feels an affinity with the Romantic period. Last week there was a storm over Helpston and we had the authentic dark cottage interior with the rain hammering down. Brilliant!’

You can find out more about at the Clare Cottage website. Tutors who want to bring a group here are welcome to contact Lynn on 07515 288602.

To read an interview with Judith Allnatt
 

Share this article