Memory Monday
“No poet has ever rhymed about the overgrown hamlets I write of; nevertheless, the changes fill with a foolish melancholy those who come back to them after a long lapse of years. Old ways and old men pass; youth builds and straightens; cities stretch out their long arms by waysides that once were green. I suppose that more people enjoy the country than they did when I was young; only the country itself has become less beautiful”.
So wrote the remarkable Mary Dormer Harris; Oxford-educated historian, lecturer, writer, social reformer, suffragist, expert in Coventry’s medieval history, playwright – and a local girl!
Born in Stoneleigh in 1867, she became well known for her detailed and lyrical descriptions of Warwickshire, including the lesser known areas. Two of her most important works include “Some Manors, Churches and Villages of Warwickshire” (1937) and “Unknown Warwickshire” (1924). She was also fascinated by the history of the city of Coventry, transcribing historical documents - working from records in Latin, Norman French and Early English - and taking an active interest in the medieval buildings which were threatened with demolition in her lifetime. Indeed, an article she wrote for Country Life magazine is thought to have played a part in saving Palace Yard from demolition. Her death in a road traffic accident in 1936 was keenly felt by colleagues and friends, but spared her from seeing her beloved city destroyed in the blitz of 1940.
Mary Dormer Harris – known to friends as Molly - was very familiar with Westwood Heath and surrounding hamlets, all of which feature in her writing. The following is her description of visiting the old home of her uncle and cousins, at Nether Fletchamstead. This was a large property, long gone, along what is now Torrington Avenue. Her words convey the sense of the area beginning to change and fade:
“I had no right to go up to the old house. Please do not tell those in authority that I went along the grass-grown ways and into the little gate under the immense dark yew. It was all very still, save for the riot of the birds in the neglected garden. I think I knew I should find no one; and indeed, no one answered, though I waited at the door…You know how it is when a house is quite empty, and yet you feel, you feel….
Peeping in at the curtainless window, I saw the bare room, where my cousin’s harp used to stand, and in at the one on the other side of the door, where my uncle used to read prayers after breakfast in his dear, husky voice… In the evening, when the lamp was lit, and the womenfolk had brought out their sewing, he would also read aloud from some improving book. Even now, I associate his memory with the scent of flowers. He would gather jasmine for you from the tree which grew up by the side of the door. Evening-scented stock was sown in the garden; and year by year the evening-primrose came up; and – as I live by bread! – there are leaves of evening-primrose coming up among the wild growth of the garden now, amid forget-me-not and clumps of blue and white hyacinth, looking like a piece of heaven’s sky fallen to the ground”.
Mary Dormer Harris’s books are an important resource for local and family historians today. Her name lives on in a Bursary scheme established in her memory in 1938. This exists to support young people in the Leamington district who are entering further education.
She also left another legacy; a warmth and a zest for life, much missed by friends and colleagues. Her former college friend wrote this heartfelt tribute to her: “In Molly’s company all the things that count – jokes and merriment, poetry, the lives of people, discussions on the problems of life and being – were enhanced, lighted up, freshly coloured. One was always so glad when she was coming, and so sorry when she went away”.
Sources/Further Reading:
Mary Dormer Harris. Some Manors, Churches and Villages of Warwickshire, 1937
Mary Dormer Harris. Unknown Warwickshire, 1924
(Both out of print, but used copies available online)
Jean Field. Mary Dormer Harris: The Life & Works of a Warwickshire Historian, 2002. (An excellent, detailed biography).
We would love to hear your comments and questions on local history matters! Please do get in touch and share your own memories, knowledge and photos.
If you have missed previous Memory Mondays or wish to re-visit them, they are all available to read in the history section of the Residents Association website. The Memory Mondays are short versions of larger, ongoing projects.