Eastwood features in much of DH Lawrence’s work, notably his first novel The White Peacock. It is now the name of the teashop opposite Lawrence’s birthplace, in nearby Victoria Street. His best-known and most controversial novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, was published abroad, in 1928. Lawrence borrowed the name of local colliery agent George Chatterley, who lived a few doors away and served as mayor of Eastwood (1917–18).
Prints and text about The Lady Chatterley.
The text reads: The name of these licensed premises is taken from the title of DH Lawrence’s best known and most controversial work, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Lawrence ‘borrowed’ the name Chatterley from the local colliery agent. George Chatterley was the right hand man of the Barber and Walker families, who owned most of the collieries in Eastwood. They also built the terraced miners’ houses known as The Squares, at the rear of these premises.
Chatterley served as mayor of Eastwood, in 1917-18, and lived a few doors away from these premises at The Hollies. The house has since been demolished, but it is recalled by the parade of shops that were built on the site.
Prints and text about David Herbert Lawrence.
The text reads: The influential, widely read and controversial author published many novels, short stories and poems during his lifetime. David Herbert Lawrence was born at 8a Victoria Street, Eastwood in 1885. The nearby house is now the DH Lawrence Birthplace Museum.
Eastwood features in much of Lawrence’s work, especially his first novel, The White Peacock, which he worked on over a period of more than four years. It was published in 1911. He placed the first copy in his mother’s hands when she was dying.
His mother and father and also his brother, Ernest, are buried in Eastwood Cemetery. There is a memorial stone to Lawrence in the cemetery although the author died in France, in 1930. He was later exhumed and his ashes scattered in New Mexico.
Prints and text about the history of coal-mining in the area.
The text reads: Eastwood is a former mining town. Coal had been mined in the area since the mid 14th century, when the monks of nearby Beauvale Priory held the rights to coal mining. There may have been shallow workings here in much earlier Roman times.
Deep mining began in the 19th century. Eastwood expanded rapidly during the Industrial Revolution. By 1880, it had grown from a small rural village into an industrial town. At one time there were ten pits in and around the town.
DH Lawrence’s father worked at Brindsley Colliery, now a picnic site and conservation area featuring the colliery’s two headstocks. The largest mine, Moorgreen Colliery, employed 1,300 at its peak and was the last to close in 1985.
Artwork entitled The Forbidden Woods, by Isabelle Amante.
“I was born in 1977, I am French but I have been living in Nottinghamshire, UK, since 2002. Being surrounded by charismatic woods and Sherwood Forest provides me the inspiration to paint moody forests inhabited by soulful trees which are telling stories of the past, present and future ones to come”.
Artwork entitled Aspects of Lawrence, by Wendy Mooney.
This artwork by Wendy Mooney, commissioned for The Lady Chatterley, brings together several facets of Lawrence’s life and work. You can find it in traces of his life in Eastwood, his art, his loves and his impact on modern life and literature.
You can find in this artwork the following images:
• Lawrence family photos
• Wallpaper from the family home in Eastwood
• Lawrence’s emblem the Phoenix and his headstone, commissioned by Frieda Weekley.
• Lawrence and Frieda Weekley, who became his lover and then his wife
• The Raven painting now in the Durban House Heritage Centre, which symbolises the freedom of expression won by the Lady Chatterley trial
• The Midlands Railway logo
• The Lawrence family home in Eastwood
• Nottingham lace
• Mining scenes
• Covers and quotes from several Lawrence novels
• Maps of Eastwood and the surrounding area.
A painting entitled DHL, by Norma Galley.
Norma Galley obtained a BA (Hons) in Art and Design from Bradford College of Art in 1998. She has exhibited at the Mall Galleries in London and as part of International Women’s Day. She was also a prize winner at the Priestly Centre for the Arts in Bradford, Faces and Places.
External photograph of the building – main entrance.
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If you have information on the history of this pub, then we’d like you to share it with us. Please e-mail all information to: pubhistories@jdwetherspoon.co.uk