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Famous Daughters - Flora Thompson
Dartmouth has long held a reputation for nurturing creativity, and a blue plaque high on a wall in Above Town is a reminder that the tranquility found here by the novelist Flora Thompson gave her the space to create a unique trilogy that captured a moment in the history of rural England – Lark Rise to Candleford.

The stories of village life centred around the Candleford Post Office have captivated readers for generations, and gained further legions of fans in recent years when they were dramatised for television.

By taking a look at the life of Flora Thompson, it is clear to see that her uniquely detailed description of life in the English countryside at the turn of the last century is drawn entirely from her own experiences, and her writing was almost totally autobiographical, based on her childhood in rural Oxfordshire - a vanished world of agricultural customs and rural culture.

Flora was born on December 5th 1876 in the hamlet of Juniper Hill in North East Oxfordshire, the eldest of six children. Her parents, Albert and Emma Timms, a stonemason and nursemaid, prized education and the children went to school in Cottisford, a small village a mile and a half’s walk from their home.

They were baptised at Cottisford Church. The church played a large part in their lives, and Flora would walk with the family to worship there each Sunday. Flora was close to her brother Edwin and the pair were thought of as odd children, often found looking for wildlife in the surrounding countryside rather than playing with other children.

Continue reading "By the Dart" July 2009 edition...
 
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