Fancy owning D.H. Lawrence’s former home for £65,000? Now could be your chance.
The writer’s family home in the early 1900s —a modest, three-bedroom property in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire— will go under the hammer today.
Lawrence, who is most famous for his novels Sons and Lovers, Women in Love, Lady Chatterley’s Lover and The Rainbow, grew up in the former coal mining town of Eastwood and lived in the house with his parents and sister, Ada, between 1905 and 1908, while he taught and trained as a teacher at Nottingham University College. He was in his early twenties at the time.
According to Dr John Worthen, Lawrence expert and former professor of D.H. Lawrence studies at Nottingham University, the Lawrences rented the house from a local man between 1905 and 1911. After getting a new job as a teacher in 1908, Lawrence moved to Croydon, returning to the house for holidays.
At the time that Lawrence lived there, the house offered views of the countryside which featured so heavily in his work. Worthen says: “The house then had a field at the bottom of the garden; the garden was full of flowers in summer and autumn. The house also then had a view across to the tower of Eastwood church, and Heanor on the hills beyond.”
It was at the house that Lawrence was able to give his mother Lydia a pre-production copy of his first novel, The White Peacock, just a week before she died there in December 1910.
“The scene of my Nottingham-Derby novels all centres round Eastwood, Notts (where I was born): and whoever stands on Walker Street, Eastwood, will see the whole landscape of Sons and Lovers before him,” wrote Lawrence in a letter in 1925. Walker Street is the adjoining street to Lynncroft, where Lawrence and his family had lived earlier.
“Underwood in front, the hills of Derbyshire on the left, the woods and hills of Annesley on the right. The road from Nottingham by Watnall, Moorgreen, up to Underwood and on to Annesley (Byron’s Annesley) — gives you all the landscape of The White Peacock, Miriam’s farm in Sons and Lovers, and the home of the Crich family, and Willey Water, in Women in Love.”
Today, however, the property “requires a full programme of refurbishment”, according to auctioneers Auction House London. As well as needing modernisation, a video tour of the house shows parts in disrepair, including gaps in the floorboards and damaged ceilings and walls. The property is currently vacant.
Covering four storeys, the house has two reception rooms, a kitchen and shower room on the ground floor, plus two further bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor. The attic has been converted into an extra bedroom, while there is also a basement and rear garden.
With a guide price of £65,000, the property is less than half the average price of a house on the same street, which sold for an average of £149,500 over the last year. On top of the purchase price, the buyer will also need to pay a £1,200 administration fee.
“The house represents a unique opportunity to own a piece of Lawrence’s legacy and to be part of the ongoing conversation about his life and work,” wrote Auction House London in a blog post, adding that the auction raises questions about the role of private ownership in preserving the house’s heritage. “The hope is that the winning bidder will honour the house’s cultural significance and take steps to preserve its historical integrity.”
According to the auctioneers, there has been “buzz and excitement” surrounding the auction, which has generated interest from literary scholars, history buffs and fans of Lawrence’s work, who have even been helping to promote the sale online.
Gavin Gillespie, a local D.H. Lawrence enthusiast, has done just that. He has been using his website, which is dedicated to the author, to spread word of the auction amongst fellow fans.
"This property is a significant piece of D.H. Lawrence and Eastwood’s literary history, and I am hoping that it will land in the right hands,” he says. “Hopefully, whoever purchases the house will give it the love and attention it is craving for.”
97 Lynncroft will be auctioned online by Auction House London on 19 April.
