Wirksworth

Wirksworth is a lovely market town in the Peak District so it is not surprising that it has inspired various authors over the years. D H Laurence and his wife lived at Mountain Cottage in Middleton where he wrote ‘The Wintry Peacock’, set in the local countryside. However, it was George Eliot’s association with the town which was of particular interest to me.

Haarlem Mill is considered by some to be the mill in her novel, The Mill on the Floss. Originally a felt fulling mill, Haarlem Mill was converted by Sir Richard Arkwright around 1780 for cotton spinning. From 1814 the mill manager was Samuel Evans, George Eliot’s (Mary Ann Evans’s) uncle. She cam to stay with her uncle and aunt in 1826 and is thought to have based the fictional town of Snowfield in Adam Bede on Wirksworth.

This cottage opposite the Mill is where Samuel Evans and his wife Elizabeth came to live around 1814. The idea for Eliot’s novel, ‘Adam Bede’, came from her aunt. Elizabeth Evans was well known and respected as a Methodist preacher, one of the few denominations which allowed women to preach. Elizabeth had visited a young girl, Mary Voce, in Nottingham Prison. This girl had been condemned to death for the murder of her child. Aunt Elizabeth stayed with Mary the night before she was hanged for infanticide and they prayed together.

‘The germ of Adam Bede was an anecdote told me by my Methodist aunt…how she had visited a condemned criminal, a very ignorant girl who had murdered her child and refused to confess…how the creature at last broke into tears and confessed her crime. The story, told by my aunt with great feeling, affected me deeply…’ from George Eliot’s journal

“Adam Bede” was published in 1859 and Elizabeth Evans was possibly the inspiration for Dinah Morris, the female preacher in the story. Wirksworth Museum has a little information about George Eliot and her aunt and a cottage a couple of doors down the street bears a plaque to the memory of Elizabeth Evans.

I can’t find any books about George Eliot for children, but you can find out more about the George Eliot Fellowship here.