LITERARY HERITAGE

Wellington may not loom large in the lives of England's great writers, but look closely and you'll find that it occasionally features in the small print. Some lived her, others worked here, and some simply came to linger on The Wrekin and admire the view. Wellington now hosts an annual Literary Festival every October - for a taste of the programme,

Houlstons' the Publishers

Literary Wellington begins with Houlstons', the town's first publishing firm. Edward Houlston Snr set up his book shop in Wellington's Market Square in the 1770s. In 1804, his son took the firm into publishing, and twenty years later it had become one of England's most important publishers of evangelical literature, opening a branch in London in the 1820s. To read more about Houlstons', and some of their authors listed below, see our Feature Articles page, or

LITERARY CLERICS

Patrick Bronte, who went on to become the father of three famous literary daughters, spent a brief period as curate at Wellington in 1807 before moving to Yorkshire. Himself a poet, he had some of his work published by Houlstons' while he lived in Wellington.

And he wasn't the only local clergyman to see his name in print thanks to Mr Houlston. His predecessor John Gauntlett had a sermon published in 1805, as did long-serving vicar of the parish Rev. John Eyton. Also published in the early decades of the century were Wrockwardine's Rev. Joshua Gilpin and curate of Wombridge, Rev. Charles Cameron.

HOULSTON'S ANGELS

Most of the books Edward Houlston published were written by up and coming lady writers - women like adverturing proto-feminist Harriet Martineau (pictured), who's career Houlston started.

Mary Martha Sherwood was one of the firm's most prolific authors. She had spent her youth in nearby Bridgnorth and, after marrying an army officer, spent several years in India. On her return, she started writing religiously themed children's stories, the most successful of which seems to have been 'Henry and his Little Bearer,' which Houlstons' ultimately took to over 30 editions.

The wife of hard-nosed Rev. Cameron of Wombridge, Lucy Cameron was Mrs Sherwood's sister and also a wizard with a pen. She similarly focused her efforts on spreading the word with a plethora of moralising short stories for children - just the sort of thing that Houlstons' liked to print.

WELLINGTON'S OWN

Hesba Stretton (Sarah Smith) was the daughter of Wellington printer and postmaster, Benjamin Smith, who started out working for Houlstons'. Hesba thus grew up surrounded by books. Her own short stories were first published in Charles Dickens’ Household Words magazine in the 1850s.

Her pen name was formed from the initials of her siblings' names - HESBA - and Stretton from Church Stretton, the South Shropshire village she visited as a child. She wrote sixty books in all, and it was the best-selling ‘Jessica’s First Prayer’ that made her name – one and a half million copies sold in dozens of languages around the world. In 1870 she moved to Richmond near London, and, exhibiting that same evangelical fervour as Houlstons' early lady writers, was instrumental in founding what would become the NSPCC.

THE WREKIN IN WRITING

In 1706, playwright George Farquhar dedicated his Shrewsbury-based play 'The Recruiting Officer' to "All Friends Round The Wrekin" - the title of a toast still given today. To see a 20th century version of the toast,

The Wrekin's role as a beacon post is recalled in Lord Macaulay's epic poem 'The Armada', which tracks the progress of England's warning beacons during the emergency of the Spanish Armada:

"And on, and on, without a pause, untired they bounded still,

All night from tower to tower they sprang; they sprang from hill to hill,

Till the proud Peak unfurled the flag o’er Darwin’s rocky dales,

Till like volcanoes flared to heaven the stormy hills of Wales,

Till twelve fair counties saw the blaze on Malvern’s lonely height,

Till streamed in crimson on the wind the Wrekin’s crest of light."

The hill would also have been part of that great chain of beacons lit to mark Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887, the subject of the first poem in A.E. Housman's much-loved collection 'A Shropshire Lad'. Houseman only mentions The Wrekin once by name, however, in a later verse:

"On Wenlock Edge, the wood's in trouble,

It's forest fleece The Wrekin heaves,

The wind it plies the saplings double,

And thick on Severn snow the leaves."

THE WREKIN IN MIND

PG Wodehouse spent a lot of time in East Shropshire when he was a youngster, hence he located the fictional Blandings Castle somewhere in the vicinity of Bridgnorth - The Wrekin, he tells us, was visible from it's "noble battlements". And it was The Wrekin, hybridised with the village of Wykyn near his home of Stableford, that gave rise to Wrykyn - the minor public school that appears in some of his stories.

JRR Tolkien is perhaps the most famous author to have enjoyed the magic and romanticism of The Wrekin, spending long hours walking there during the time he lived at Penkridge in nearby Staffordshire. Study the map of Middle Earth and you'll find that it isn't disimilar to a map of the West Midlands. Certainly standing on top of The Wrekin, Tolkien would have had the best view of that landscape - the idylic Shire beneath him, the high mountains west of him, and just beyond the eastern horizon, the smoking chimneys of the Black Country (or Mordor). Presumably the isolated Wrekin became Tolkien's 'Lonely Mountain'.

SHELF LIFE

Philip Larkin was one of Britain's most influential 20th century poets, and for a few years in the 1940s, he was Wellington's reluctant librarian.

He wasn't a fan of the town and despaired of the time he spent "doling out trippy novels" to its inhabitants. He penned some of his early work here prior to the publication of his first acclaimed anthology, The North Ship (1945). He may not have loved Wellington, but it is at least some consolation that he didn't form that trade-mark depressive streak until after he left!

He made amends with the town in the 1960s when he unveiled the library extension in Walker Street, the passage way which leads to it now called Larkin Way.