D - Dotheboys Hall
A presentation copy of 'The Life of Dickens' in the British Library contains a photographic reproduction of -
Dotheboys Hall may be a fictional house, but unfortunately the actual school on which it was based was not. This was -
A presentation copy of 'The Life of Dickens' in the British Library contains a photographic reproduction of -
In his novel Nicholas Nickleby describes the brutal regime at the Yorkshire school of Dotheboys Hall run by an evil headmaster, Wackford Squeers.
In 1838 Dickens and illustrator Hablot Brown had travelled to Yorkshire to see school conditions for themselves. The preface to Nicholas Nickleby describes the school masters as
"Traders in the avarice, indifference, or imbecility of parents, and the helplessness of children; ignorant, sordid, brutal men, to whom few considerate persons would have entrusted the board and lodging of a horse or a dog; they formed the worthy cornerstone of a structure, which, for absurdity and a magnificent high-minded laissez-aller neglect, has rarely been exceeded in the world."
Dotheboys Hall may be a fictional house, but unfortunately the actual school on which it was based was not. This was -
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| Bowes Academy |
It is believed that Dickens based Squeers on William Shaw, headmaster at Bowes Academy when Dickens and Browne made their two day visit. Earlier William Shaw had been convicted of ill treating children at his school.
Today Bowes Academy has been converted into flats and looks much different, not at all like the fictional Dotheboys Hall.
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| Bowes Hall (ex geograph.org.uk - By David Rogers, 7 April 2009 - CC BY-SA 2.0) |
