| Where | St Augustine’s Church Hall, Kirkby | Type of Event | Talk |
| When | Friday 12th December 2025 | Tutor | Chris Lloyd |
The lecture at this year’s Christmas Event was delivered by Chris Lloyd who has given the LHG talks on a variety of topics over many years. Chris is a journalist, contributing, among other subjects, local history articles to The Northern Echo and The Darlington & Stockton Times. He has regular engagements with other societies and has a friendly and entertaining style. We had a good sized audience, which was to be expected with the Event, and the audience was not disappointed with the talk given as it was by an enthusiastic, nay, exuberant, speaker.
The choice of subject was influenced by 2025 being the 160th anniversary of the publication of Alice in Wonderland in 1865.
Lewis Carroll, or rather Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was born in 1832. Carroll’s connection with the area was as a result of his father becoming rector at Croft in 1843. His education was at Richmond and Rugby Schools, and Oxford University, from which he graduated with first class honours in mathematics. His intimate connection with the area lasted for 25 years. The characters and events in Alice arose from his experience of people living in North Yorkshire, South Durham and Darlington.
Part of Chris’s theme arose from Carroll’s interest in playing with words and turning them around. His pseudonym was a result of this process. Local features which influenced some elements of his stories include Hell’s Kettles. These were holes in the ground of uncertain depth which inspired Alice’s encounter with a rabbit hole. And the closeness to Croft Spa, and the quality of its drinking water, inspired “Drink me”. Other features were based on the development of massive cattle and the coming of the railways. The railways led to the introduction of timetables and common time. Hence, the panic of the White Rabbit and the obsession with punctuality. Local people, such as Milbanke and Chaytor, a quarrelsome duo, inspired Tweedledum and Tweedledee. The Cheshire cat’s grin without a face came from viewing a sculpture in church.
In a similar vein, the poem Jabberwock was based on local history and legend. In this case the legend of the Sockburn Worm, which lived near the River Tees, was the basis of the dragon.
Carroll was a man of serious mind as well. In 1868, on the death of his father, he returned to Oxford for the rest of his life, where he lectured in mathematics. He published mathematical works and developed ideas on proportional representation. Much of what he did had relevance for today.
This was an entertaining and engaging lecture. It was a lot of fun. There were questions. Thoroughly enjoyable.
