AN ENGLISH SHRINE

Hokitika Guardian, 25 May 1929, Page 6

AN ENGLISH SHRINE

“LITTLE JIM’S” COTTAGE In a letter to The Times, Air G. P. .Sidwell, ol Coventry, writes as follows regarding “Little Jim’s” Cottage which has been immortalised in the well-known poem by Edward Farmer which at one time appeared in the school hooks in use in New Zealand as well as in England:— The cottage, as the years passed, seemed to get older and meaner until in the year 1912 the local sanitary authority condemned it as unfit for habitation. The black and white building is situated in a narrow lane leading from Polesworth to Dordon Hall, Dordon. It is in the centre of the Yorkshire coalfield and is reached from the Walling street by a turning near Ath-,-rstone—a town famous for its Shrove Tuesday football match. The cottage was the scene of the death of “Little Jim,” whose departure from this life has been described innumerable times in the words of Farmer’s poem. “He was a collier’s only child, they called him ‘Little Jim’ The old recitation used to run “We are Seven” and “You are old, Father William.” very hard in the race for popularity. The Warwickshire County Council, which had just previously bought the area of land the cottage stood upon for the purpose of small holdings, decided to offer it for sale. The people oT the neighbourhood were anxious that the picturesque old place should he preserved as a memento of a story which had almost become a classic in the Third and Fourth standards of our elementary schools. The amount 'to hi* raised—about £50 —was not excessive and the final words of an appeal made at the time were: “Perhaps in spite of a hard-hearted, but publicspirited, sanitary authority, ‘Littjle Jim’s’ cottage may yet he saved.” In answer to inquiries made some little time ago, the Rev. A. T. Cortield, vicar of Polesworth, sent- the following reply to me: “The old thatched cottage of ‘Little Jim’ is very much in existence, and well taken care of. It has been bought by Air 'Tranter, who lives there with his wile and daughter. 1 send you a ‘Little Jim’ card.”

In Tamwortli Churchyard is a monument hearing the following inscription distributed on three sides: (1) “ To preserve the memory of a talented man, whose genial temperament found one of its favourite expressions in songs of patriotism and philanthropy, his friends erected this monument ” ; (2) “ To the author of” Little Jim’”; (3) “In memory of Edward Farmer, many yc-ars a resident in Tamworth, wlio died suddenly, July 10, 1576. Kt-'-d 67 rears, and was in the New Cemetery at Derby.’ Some 40 years ago “ Little Jim, or the Collier’s Dying Child,” used to be given as a short spectacle in an itinerant theatre at Coventry and other .Midland fairs on the first and busiest