“Whatever I forget, I shall never forget the Haggs - I loved it so” D.H. Lawrence
News
Advent/Christmas Carol service, ‘From darkness into Light’
Saturday 9th December 2023 4pm St Mary's Church, Greasley, Nottingham NG16 2AB
An atmospheric candlelit event in a beautiful Lawrencian Country Church, using a powerful liturgy of symbolism through words, music and painting depicting a challenging journey from despair to hope.
Lawrence's Muse at Eastwood Library
Eastwood library proved to be a great setting for the launch of the Haggs Farm Preservation Society's latest publication, Lawrence's Muse. Against the backdrop of their wonderful Lawrence collection, we had talks, readings, plenty of lively discussion and some amazing cakes, supplied by local café, Santa Cruz. Thanks to everyone for coming along. Lawrence's Muse is a collection of Jessie Chambers' writing, edited by Clive Leivers and published by Five Leaves, Nottingham, it gives us an insight into Jessie as writer, artist, correspondent and pacifist. If you would like a copy of the book, details can be found here.
D.H. Lawrence Festival 2023
We're very happy to announce our latest publication, a collection of Jessie Chambers' writing, edited by Clive Leivers, published by Five Leaves, Nottingham. Join us to celebrate at the launch during the D.H. Lawrence festival, on September 8th.
Find out more about the Haggs Farm Preservation Society through our display at The Breach House, Garden Road, Eastwood.
Upcoming open days Saturday 19th August 11am - 3pm, and as part of the D.H. Lawrence festival and Heritage Open Days Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th September 11am - 3pm. Please come along and have a guided tour around this wonderful house. Visit The Breach House website for more details.
Spring/Summer events 2023
The D.H. Lawrence Festival September 2nd - 11th 2022
For the full programme of events, please visit the D.H. Lawrence Society website.
March 2022 Talk to the DH Lawrence Society
“'It really was a new life began in me there.’ The vital significance of Haggs Farm and Jessie Chambers to DH Lawrence.”
Andrew Cooper, chair of the Haggs Farm Preservation Society introduces Haggs Farm, its significance and Lawrence's connection to it and then makes a case for the particular significance of Jessie Chambers, while Kate Foster uses Jessie's letters alongside two of Lawrence's poems to explore the gaps in the narrative of their relationship.
Listen to the audiorecording here.
DH Lawrence Festival 2021
Wednesday September 8 2021 1 30 pm
DH Lawrence Festival Walk around Lawrence’s beautiful countryside, ending at Greasley Church, where the church will be open for us to visit, followed by a cream tea at the Greasley Church coffee shop.
Meet in the Greasley Church car park at 1.30 p.m. The walk will be approximately three miles and last about one and a half hours. There is plenty of parking in the church lay by.
Please let Sheila Bamford know if you wish to join us - phone: 01773436776 and whether you require a cream tea priced £7.00.
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Leavis-Lawrence Day by Zoom on Saturday September 11 2021
Leavis was the first seriously to place Lawrence among the Greats of English literature and the Leavis-Lawrence Day has been held annually for almost a decade under, as it were, the aegis of that judgement, but never uncritically. This year, however, we decided to devote the Day almost exclusively to Lawrence and to four people in his life who have engendered, for different reasons, controversy and speculation. How did figures to be found in almost any man's life, his mother, his father, his first girlfriend, his wife, become such dramatis personae written into Lawrence's history? (Only two of them have ever spoken for themselves.) By the end of the day we might have more understanding and some of our views modified.
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10 - 12pm Paul Filmer on Lydia Lawrence, Malcolm Gray on Arthur Lawrence
2 - 4pm Kate Foster on Jessie Chambers, John Worthen on Frieda Lawrence
7pm The DHLawrence Memorial Birthday Lecture: 'Affirmation and Anxiety in Lady Chatterley's Lover' by Keith Cushman
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Everyone welcome. All talks will be held via Zoom - the link will be sent nearer the time to DH Lawrence society members. Please contact Brenda Sumner if you would like to attend or for more details.
HFPS AGM 2021
The talk by the Manuscripts Dept at the AGM was recorded and is available for all members to view. Please get in touch if you haven't received the link.
The Haggs Farm Preservation Society AGM will be held on Saturday 24th July 2021 at 2pm via ZOOM. We are very pleased that after the AGM, the Nottingham University Manuscripts Dept will give an introduction to the Manuscripts and Special Collections, an overview of the Lawrence collections, and show off some of their new acquisitions, which we will be the first to see. It promises to be a very special talk by experts on a wonderful collection. If you haven’t been able to visit – or haven’t been able to visit recently, we are sure you will find it inspiring. Everyone is welcome. Please email kate.polka@yahoo.com for the zoom link.
Sky Arts Documentary 4th March 2021
Haggs Farm Memorabilia
These lovely plates and mug were kindly donated by a lady who used to work for Broxtowe Borough Council during which time they celebrated the 50th anniversary of the death of DH Lawrence in 1980. The donator is a volunteer with the Nottingham Branch of the Greyhound Trust to which the DHL Society made a donation in return for this special memorabilia. The plates show three settings from Sons and Lovers, The Breach House, Three Tuns Pub and Haggs Farm, and will be on display at The Breach House when it reopens.
Christmas Concert 2020
Light in our darkness
To cheer us up in these dark and difficult times the DH Lawrence Society and Haggs Farm Preservation Society Christmas Concert will be available to listen to until Candlemas (February 2nd 2021) on the DH Lawrence society Christmas Celebrations webpage where you will also find reviews of the concert and our joint zoom party.
Click here to listen
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Haggs Farm Preservation Society AGM
The Haggs Farm Preservation Society AGM was held very successfully on zoom on Saturday 14th November 2020 followed by a talk by Alan Wilson and Malcolm Gray following on from their collaboration on the cantata 'The Voice of Nethermere' for the DH Lawrence festival.
“Landscape through literature; landscape through music: A collaborative appreciation of a formation of an artistic enterprise”: In this time of biodiversity awareness, climate change, global warming and impending extinction, Alan Wilson and Malcolm Gray discuss how the rediscovery of the neglected novel ‘The White Peacock’ with all its poetic references to local fauna and flora and the abuse thereof inspired the bringing together of words and music to form an allegory pertinent to today’s concern, giving this novel a new impetus to the wider world.”
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To listen to Alan and Malcolm's talk about the cantata please click here
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To read about the intention of the cantata please click here
DH Lawrence Society Festival Saturday September 12th 2020
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Recordings of all events can now be found at www.dhlawrencesociety.com/meetings
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9.30am Welcome from DHL society chairman Alan Wilson
9.45am David Game: 'DH Lawrence and Australia'
11am Paul Eggert: ‘Birds, beasts and flowers’
2pm Malcolm Pittock: 'Lawrence's Jessie poems'
3pm Interview with Clive Leivers, president of the Haggs Farm Preservation Society who talks about his own life and a forthcoming publication of his new book, a collection of Jessie Chambers' writing
4pm The premiere performance of the new Cantata, ‘The Voice of Nethermere’ (based on ‘The White Peacock’) by Alan Wilson and Malcolm Gray
7pm Judith Ruderman The Lawrence Birthday Lecture, ‘A life of illness and resilience: Reflections on Lawrence’s letters in a time of pandemic’ (by zoom ending with interactive chat, not only about this topic, but about the whole day)
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Lawrence online
The DH Lawrence Society have responded bravely to the current pandemic by deciding to hold their meetings online and, even if you aren't in the society, you can access the recordings via the website www.dhlawrencesociety.com
The July meeting is an audio recording by Alan Wilson of a ‘virtual’ journey around Eastwood and the surrounding countryside. Alan explores the Eastwood of his childhood interviewing ‘a wonderful array of Lawrentian devotees made up of social historians, academics and loyal local people’, alongside poetry readings and of course, music. Of particular interest to members of the HFPS is our chair Andrew Cooper talking about the history of Haggs Farm and its surroundings and Ruth Templeton talking about her interest in Jessie Chambers.
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On Saturday September 12th 2020 the DH Lawrence Society will be online for the day with podcasts and zoom events on a range of Lawrence related topics. In the afternoon, Malcolm Pittock will give a talk on Lawrence’s poetry and Jessie Chambers, there will be a feature on Clive Leivers, president of HFPS, and in the evening the birthday lecture will be “A Life of Illness and Resilience: Reflections on Lawrence’s Letters in a Time of Pandemic” by Judith Ruderman.
New chair for the DH Lawrence society
Our very own Alan Wilson has now become chairman of the D.H. Lawrence Society, taking over from Malcolm Gray. Alan has been an active member of both the Haggs Farm and D. H. Lawrence Societies during the last three years, especially in connection with the annual festivals.
Born and bred in Eastwood, he is now firmly rediscovering his roots, and has been involved in considerable local sociological and musical research.
He still lives in the London/Kent area and is dividing his time between the two centres. He comes from a mining family going back several generations, although his father was a framework knitter at Aristoc in Langley Mill (now defunct). There was much ‘genetic’ music in the family passed on to Alan, and he left Eastwood to take up scholarships in London and Amsterdam, leading to a highly successful career as a composer, performer and director of music.
Revisiting Eastwood, he loves interviewing people both young and old, gathering up research information as well as delving through all the archives at the libraries. He has also discovered some neglected names from the past, especially Arthur Linwood, and is combining his own composing and performing skills with the output of such newly discovered gems.
There is something deep and profound about revisiting one’s childhood; 1950s Eastwood was not so different from when Lawrence and Jessie lived there.
Alan regards it very humbling to be the new chairman, following the steps of Malcolm and all the great leaders beforehand. And he is looking forward to working closely with DHLS, HFPS and the Birthplace Museum, as well as developing links with the Eastwood Historical Society. There are so many talented and visionary people around and Alan greatly looks forward to a vibrant united team spirit!
Look out for our next blog to find out more about Alan's career and interests.
Jodie Holmes, photographer
Photograph by Jodie Holmes
One of the many pleasures of our recent visit to the University of Nottingham Libraries, Manuscripts and Special Collections Department (see blog from December 10th Up Close and Personal with DHL), was meeting Amy Bowler who told us that her great-great-great uncle, Jodie Holmes took the picture of the Chambers family outside Haggs Farm which we have on our home page. Jodie's photography studio (and house) was one of the semi-detached houses on the corner of School Road and Middlebrook Road in Bagthorpe.
Amy has sent us two more of Jodie's photos; one shows the Three Horseshoes pub Rambling Club in 1912. The pub was in Lower Bagthorpe and is now a cottage. The older man on the extreme right is Amy's grandad’s great uncle Bill (the brother of the photographer J. Holmes) and his sons Ned and Cliff are also present.
The other photograph shows a group of women (including some of the Holmes family) outside the Red Lion pub on Church Lane around 1910.
What a great legacy left by Jodie and thanks so much to Amy and her family for sharing it.
Photograph by Jodie Holmes
Christmas Concert
A few pictures from the DH Lawrence Society and Haggs Farm Preservation Society Christmas Concert at St Mary's Church, Eastwood. Lawrence captures the spirit of Christmas, the food, the decorations, the entertainment, in many of his novels but he also reflects on what Christmas actually means and we had time for that too. We had readings not just from Lawrence but from Laurie Lee, Willie Hopkin and John McCutcheon amongst others, mixed with rousing carols. A great start to Christmas - thanks to everyone who took part and made it so special. Let's make it part of our Christmas tradition!
It was bitter, though, that Christmas Day, as it drew on to evening, and night, became a sort of bank holiday, flat and stale. The morning was so wonderful, but in the afternoon and evening the ecstasy perished like a nipped thing, like a bud in a false spring. Alas, that Christmas was only a domestic feast, a feast of sweetmeats and toys! Why did not the grown-ups also change their everyday hearts, and give way to ecstasy? Where was the ecstasy?
DH Lawrence The Rainbow
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Happy Christmas everyone!
November 2019 Canadian Connections
The Haggs Farm Preservation Society have recently made contact with the Chambers family in Canada & in particular with Bernard Chambers great granddaughter, Alison. She has kindly provided us with two photographs taken in September 2017 when her family visited the Eastwood area. The family group is taken outside the DH Lawrence Birthplace Museum.
Sadly they were unable to see their old family home at Haggs Farm but did take a photograph of New Haggs.
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From left to right:
Alison Chambers Heidel - great granddaughter of Bernard Chambers
David Bray - great nephew of Elizabeth Marsh Chambers (wife of Bernard)
Clarice Bray - niece of Elizabeth Marsh Chambers
Lorna Chambers - wife of Allan Chambers
Allan Chambers - grandson of Bernard Chambers
Deborah Millwater - great niece of Elizabeth Marsh Chambers
Scot Heidel - husband of Alison Chambers Heidel
You can read more about the story of the Chambers who emigrated to Canada in the Haggs Farm Preservation Society publication Miriam’s Farm by Clive Leivers. Hubert and Bernard arrived in Canada in 1914, accompanied by Bill Holbrook, May Chamber’s husband. They had several labouring jobs before taking on a homestead but then joined the Canadian army and fought in France, eventually returning to Canada in 1919. May arrived in 1915 and spent her life out there as a teacher. Molly also emigrated to Canada in 1938 with her two sons and reportedly ran a Christmas tree business.
Look out for our blog series ‘What happened next’ for the full story of what happened to Bernard, Hubert, May and Molly Chambers and their lives after Haggs Farm.
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Friday 25th October - Scarthin Books
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What a great event this was. Despite the pouring rain, the café at Scarthin Books was packed full. As we went round the room and introduced ourselves it was cheering to see so many Lawrence fans keen to know more about the inspiration he found in Haggs Farm – a setting he returns to time and again in his writing, and his intense and complex relationship with Jessie Chambers. Watch out for a full write up on this website and in our next newsletter.
October 2019 Two New Blog Series
Look out this month for two new blogs by Haggs Farm Preservation Society members. The first is by Steve Newman, a writer from Stratford, who is going to write a series of blogs about artists and their creative influences. In his October blog he draws links between DH Lawrence and Ernest Hemingway through the influence of their first loves, Jessie Chambers and Agnes von Kurowsky. Our second blog series will be by local historian, Carol Mills; we know a lot about Jessie Chambers' life after Haggs Farm but Carol will write about what happened to the other members of the Chambers family.
Autumn 2019 Display at Scarthin Books, Cromford
Scarthin Books at Cromford, near Matlock have created a wonderful new display exploring the relationship of Lawrence, Jessie Chambers and literature. Based on the books they picked up at The Mechanics Institute Library, Eastwood and discussed as they walked across the fields to Haggs Farm, which Jessie writes about in such detail in her Memoir - DH Lawrence: A Personal Record, it offers a fascinating glimpse into Lawrence's early influences. Check out our September blog to see the full reading list.
September 2019 The DH Lawrence Festival
The DH Lawrence festival is coming soon and has a whole host of interesting events as always. Two in particular are linked to the Haggs Farm Preservation Society.
On Friday 6th September at 6.30pm at St Mary's Church, Eastwood, Ruth Templeton will open the festival with a talk on Jessie Chambers.
On Tuesday 10th September at 11am, Carol Mills is leading a walk around Eastwood on behalf of the society 'looking at premises associated with family and friends of Lawrence and at buildings which feature in his novels and short stories.' The Breach House is also open on this day.
You can pick up a programme at The DH Lawrence Birthplace Museum or at The Breach House, Eastwood.
New Publication for 2020
The society has recently been given access to previously unpublished letters from Jessie Chambers to Dorothy Plowman, wife of Max Plowman, who wrote a foreword at the front of Jessie's memoirs. We hope to make these more widely available next year.
Summer 2019
Two special items from Haggs Farm are now on display at the Breach House
You can now see this beautiful pastel drawing of delphiniums by Jessie Chambers at the Breach House.
Jessie Chambers and DH Lawrence became close friends in their teenage years. They both loved to paint and write, inspired by their countryside walks together and the nature all around them.
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The yellow corn was dipping and flowing in the fields, like a cloth of gold pegged down at the corners under which the wind was heaving. Sometimes we passed cottages where the scarlet lilies rose like bonfires, and the tall larkspur like bright blue leaping smoke.
From ‘The White Peacock’ by DH Lawrence 1911
The Haggs clock ticked away in the kitchen at Haggs Farm all the time Lawrence spent there between 1902 - 1908. For a number of years it has been in the possession of Ann (Chambers) Howard, the niece of Jessie Chambers and stalwart of the Haggs Farm Preservation Society. Ann sadly died in 2018 and left it to our President, Clive Leivers, who has kindly loaned it to the Breach House as part of the Haggs Farm exhibition.
An Anglo-American drop dial, veneered in rosewood, this style of clock was manufactured in England c.1880 and fitted with an American imported movement.
This date would suggest that the parents of Jessie and her siblings either bought the clock when they were married or were given it as a wedding present. The dial was replaced during the period 1952-1963 as the name inscribed on the dial, G Bateman of Beeston, relates to a watchmaker who traded between those dates.
Autumn 2018 Haggs Farm Preservation Society exhibition at the Breach House
Haggs Farm was featured as October's property of the month by Save Britain's Heritage. Read more about it here
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You can find out much more about the work and the progress of the society in a new exhibition at the Breach House.
The Mayor of Eastwood, Pat Hamilton at the opening ceremony & the Haggs Farm exhibition at the Breach House during the D.H. Lawrence Festival in September 2018.