Why a Booktrail?
1820s: Little Nell and her tale of woe retold for children or for adults who want to refresh their memories!
The Old Curiosity Shop (Real Reads)
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. They are poor but are in the grasp of a debt collector who turfs them out of their shop and home. Forced to flee,they head north past the Black Country with little more than the clothes on their back.
They are thrown into a shadowy world in which there seems to be no safe haven.
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.
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
C) Tong - Nell's Church
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Old Curiosity Shop (Real Reads)
Author/Guide: Charles Dickens Destination: London, Tong, Black Country Departure Time: 1820s
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