Video: Debate over actual place of poet John Clare's birth
AS ACADEMICS and enthusiasts gathered for the grand opening of John Clare's birthplace near Peterborough this weekend, a lone dissenting voice put the cat among the pigeons by claiming the poet was not born there at all.
AS ACADEMICS and enthusiasts gathered for the grand opening of John Clare's birthplace near Peterborough this weekend, a lone dissenting voice put the cat among the pigeons by claiming the poet was not born there at all.A four-day celebration, which began on Friday, saw Clare Cottage heritage centre opened to the public in the village of Helpston for the first time following a 2.7 million renovation.
The 19th-century scribe known as the "peasant poet" was brought up in the cottage in Woodgate and is widely believed to have been born there, too.
But a city pensioner who also grew up in Helpston and whose family links with the village go back generations tells an entirely different story.
Peter Dines (68), of Lavender Crescent, in Dogsthorpe, says Clare was in fact born in another cottage in Helpston before his parents moved to what is now known as Clare Cottage.
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He said: "My aunt and my mother used to tell me and my older brother a story about how my great, great grandmother used to live next door to Mr and Mrs Clare and used to help with their washing.
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"The house where they lived and where John Clare was born was deteriorating and so they moved into the cottage which is now recognised as his birthplace.
"Every time I hear someone say he was born in Clare Cottage it makes me a bit angry. My aunt always talked about writing to The Evening Telegraph to tell the story, but she never got round to it."
According to Mr Dines, Clare's genuine birthplace stood next to a paddock opposite Royce Wood but it has since been demolished and houses in Temples Court now stand in its place.
Apparently, a plaque was once attached to the building but was lost after it was pulled down.
The John Clare Trust, the organisation in charge of Clare Cottage, has not sought to quash Mr Dines's claims and has even gone so far as to admit his story may have an element of truth in it.
Executive officer Lynn Jackson said: "We have never claimed it is 100 per cent fact that Clare Cottage is John Clare's birthplace.
"It has always been rumoured that he was born somewhere else.
"But to the best of our knowledge, which is based on the research of one of our trustees, Dr Paul Chirico, a senior lecturer at Cambridge University, and the biographies of Clare which have been written, we believe that he was born here."
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Friday 12 March 2010
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