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1820s: Who can forget dear little Nell?
The Old Curiosity Shop
What you need to know before your trail
Little Nell Trent lives in the quiet gloom of the old curiosity shop with her ailing grandfather. She cares for him whilst working in the shop. Their home is just at the back of the shop where Nell rests for a while when things get too much. It’s not that the shop is overly busy, but life in and outside the shop is hard and she has a lot to do. Money is tight and one day they find it impossible to pay back the money they have borrowed from money-lender Daniel Quilp. He comes down hard on them and seizes the shop causing them to flee.
But from the relatively safe haven of shadows in the shop, this new world of the unknown, shadows and darkness, there seems to be little light left…
Travel Guide
London
The old Curiosity Shop might not be exactly the one that Charles Dickens was inspired by (that one was apparently demolished) but the one in its place does resemble a house from that period.
London is one mass of dirt , cobbles and poverty:
“Dismantled houses here and there appeared, tottering to the earth, propped up by fragments of others that had fallen down, unroofed, windowless, blackened, desolate, but yet inhabited. Men, women, children, wan in their looks and ragged in attire, tended the engines, fed their tributary fire, begged upon the road, or scowled half-naked from the doorless houses.”
On the road
Nell and her grandfather leave the shop and head North to the Black Country but not before meeting Codlin and Short in a churchyard in Aylesbury and attending horse racing at Banbury.
Warwickshire is mentioned for this is where they meet Mrs. Jarley near the and find work at Jarley’s Waxworks is Warwick. They travel further up the Warwick and Birmingham Canal). before Nell faints and is finally rescued in Wolverhampton in the Black Country.
Tong Shropshire
The church, St Bartholomews, is often thought to be the one where Little Nell lies in her final resting place. Charles Dickens visited Tong church when his grandmother worked at the nearby castle and many people believe that this is the church which inspired the one in the novel.
Streetview Maps
A) London - The Old Curiosity Shop
E) Tong - Little Nell's final resting place
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Old Curiosity Shop
Author/Guide: Charles Dickens Destination: London Departure Time: 1820s
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