Mary Webb: A Shropshire Writer
Mary Webb plaque in Much Wenlock
Mary Webb (1881-1927) was an author who truly engaged with the landscape in which she lived and worked; indeedShropshire is a character of its own in all six of her novels, including Gone to Earth (1917) and Precious Bane (1924). During my research on Mary Webb, I have enjoyed many days walking in her footsteps through the Shropshire hills and trawling through all the information about her which is held at the Shropshire Archives.
What has interested me the most was how Webb's work has inspired so many people to make literary pilgrimages to the Shropshire countryside because of her depiction of the county in her writing. The Archives are full of written anecdotes from people who feel a strong affinity with Shropshire because of Webb and many maps of walking tours have been compiled which lead pilgrims to visit the houses she lived in and the settings of her novels. I was also pleased to discover paintings, poems and needlework that lovers of Webb had done in dedication to her and her work.
Such is the love for Webb that many items and places have been named after her. The Archives provide details of a David Austin rose that was named 'Mary Webb', a 'Gone to Earth' beer brewed by the Wistanstow-based Wood brewery, a garden dedicated to her at Bayston Hill Library, and an article from a 2001 newspaper states how Arscott Golf Course 'is set in beautiful Mary Webb country and many of the holes are named after the characters and locations used by the local novelist in her books. Old Beguildy, Hunters Spinney and God's Little Mountain evoke the spirit of a bygone age and help to make Arscott an ideal escape from the stresses and strains of modern living'. It seems to be this nostalgia that is one of the main attractions of Webb's writing.
Literary pilgrims to Shropshire often refer to feelingWebb's presence on their visits to her houses. A newspaper article from 1955 writes of how one of her former homes is now for sale: 'A tea house...a guest house or a private residence...But for whatever it is used, the spirit of Mary Webb will be there still, and it will remain the mecca of a small band of admirers, some half dozen or so of whom visit it each year and strive to trace its attractiveness and atmosphere in their favourites among her works'. One of these pilgrims, Wilfred Byford-Jones, wrote in 1964 that 'she lives there still, as she does in other Shropshire houses in which she resided' and 'As I stood before Mary Webb's birthplace I though I heard her faintly musical voice'.
The owner of one of Webb's former homes, Spring Cottage in Lyth Hill, wrote in 1987 that 'We get quite a number of visitors each year and many more just look over the gate'. This desire to feel closer to Webb and her work through visiting Shropshire is a common sentiment expressed by these pilgrims. Melvyn Bragg even filmed a TV programme in 1990 on 'The Shropshire Novelists' in which he interviewed a member of the Mary Webb Society in the garden of Leighton Lodge, another of Webb's former homes.
Pilgrims also feel a connection with Webb's characters on their visits to the county. Even today, when walking in the Shropshire hills, you can easily imagine yourself to be like Hazel Woodus as she 'walked in a mystical exaltation' 'free of everyone, her own for the pearly hours of morning' (Gone to Earth (1930) Jonathan Cape, pp. 184 and 182).
This photograph shows the statue of Mary Webb outside Shrewsbury Library which was
commissioned by the Mary Webb Society and was unveiled to the public in July 2016.
Webb herself walked through the countryside to her market stall in Shrewsbury. Vivian Bird, in an article from The Birmingham Post in 1981, recalls how when she was staying at the Post Office in Ratlinghope, a Mrs Nancy Jones told her that Webb often walked from the Hills to tea with her mother and that she was 'a strange unromantic little thing, very quiet, with holes in her black stockings'.
However unromantic she may have appeared to be, Webb's love of the countryside has certainly helped Shropshire tourism and inspired (and continues to inspire) many people to visit this beautiful part of the country. So, put on your walking boots, grab a map, and go out for a ramble in the hills. you never know, you too may feel Webb's presence walking beside you....
Naomi Walker
PhD student and Visiting Lecturer
