A Traveller in Time
‘A Traveller in Time’ is one of my favourite childhood books. First published in 1939, it tells the story of Penelope Taberner, who is sent to live at ‘Thackers’, farm of her great aunt and uncle. The house was once owned by Anthony Babbington, who became embroiled in a plot to put Mary, Queen of Scots on the throne. Penelope moves from her present day to Elizabethan times as the plot to rescue Mary from her prison at Wingfield Manor unravels, bringing great danger to the Babbington family and their household, whom Penelope has come to care for deeply. It has a deeply poignant ending which left me sobbing every time I read it!
It was a stone built farm, with gables and doorways in unexpected places, with barns and cowhouses across the green grassplat and old ivy-covered buildings where fowls roosted and calves sheltered.
Anthony Babbington was executed on the 20th September, 1586. Aged 24, he was convicted of high treason and along with his co-conspirators, was hanged, drawn and quartered on a specially erected scaffold in St. Giles' Field, near Holborn. Thackers was the fictional name for the Babington Manor House at Dethick, in Derbyshire. Now a private home, it is sadly not possible to visit, but it is possible to drive through Dethick without even realising it! St John the Baptist, the thirteenth century parish church, was the private chapel of the manor.
My attempts to visit Wingfield Manor were also frustrated. Managed by English Heritage, the website states that the manor is currently closed ‘for the safety of visitors’. Mary, Queen of Scots, was indeed imprisoned here in 1569, 1584 and 1585 and it was this that Uttley drew on for her novel.
Born at Castle Top Farm, near Cromford, Dethick was near Alison Uttley’s home and her love of the countryside is evident in all her writing. ‘A Traveller in Time’ is beautifully written, highly evocative and atmospheric, capturing the essence of the Elizabethan age through here descriptions of Thackers and the family’s life there. The idea for the story came to Uttley in her dreams:
‘Many of the incidents in this story are based on my dreams, for in sleep I went through secret hidden doorways in the house wall and found myself in another century. Four times I stepped through the door and wandered in rooms which had no existence, a dream within a dream, and I talked with people who lived alongside but out of time, moving through a life parallel to my own existence.’
Although I loved the book as a child, I love it more as an adult! It is perfect for those interested in history and may inspire the reader to find out more about Anthony Babbington, Mary, Queen of Scots and the plots surrounding her which ultimately led to her execution. An excellent book!
You can read about Alison Uttley’s connections with Beaconsfield here.
