An interesting evening...

On Thursday evening our local W.I. held their monthly meeting. Normally there is a speaker , followed by tea and sometimes a quiz. All the details are printed in the members' diary but for this month we had a 'surprise visitor'.
It was a very foggy night and I think this kept many of our members at home. For the ones that braved the 'pea soup' we spent a riveting evening listening to a talk and slideshow on one of England's literary greats visit to our area many years ago.
The speaker was a retired vet from the area and his enthusiastic talk was wonderful.

As you can see from the plaque in the picture I am talking about Charles Dickens' visit to Teesdale in the 1800's. He stayed at the King's Head in Barnard Castle and from there toured the are in research for his book, Nicholas Nickleby.
The conditions in the book mirrored the terrible situation some children found themselves in the 'Yorkshire schools'. These weren't schools as we know them now but places where illegitemate, orphaned or unwanted children were sent, some from as far away as London.
Their days were a mix of slave labour , with meagre portions of food , poor lodgings and NO VACATIONS. Once here they never returned home. What a devastating existence they lived.
The plight of these children inspired Dickens to write Nicholas Nickleby .His character Smike was a portrayal of a boy whose grave Dickens found on his visit to Bowes churchyard. He wrote this book quickly on his return to London. His readership was large and once the book published , probably in chapters in a magazine at first, he made the schools' appalling conditions known to the rest of the public. Thus began investigations into the conditions and within two years these terrible places were closed down.

My few words only touch on the topic, more information can be found
here.