Corner of Rudyard Lake - early
1900's Rudyard lake
was an extremely popular tourist attraction at the turn of the
last century, and as such became known as the "Blackpool of
the Potteries".
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Rudyard Kipling,
the famous author, was named after Rudyard Lake.
Rudyard lake is an artificial reservoir two
miles long and a quarter of a mile wide built in 1831 to feed the
Macclesfield canal. Rudyard Kipling was named after the lake as a
result of his parents meeting there in 1863.
Rudyard is a
small village which is between Stoke-on-Trent and the moorlands town
of Leek and is probably most famous for giving its name to Rudyard
Kipling. Kipling’s parents fell in love with Rudyard so much during
their courtship that they decided to name their son
Rudyard.
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Rudyard itself gets its name from Ralph Rudyard
who is reputed to have slain Richard III at
Bosworth. |
There
are many attractions to see while visiting Rudyard, the lake
(reservoir) which feeds the local canal system is 2.5 miles
long, it has sailing and rowing boats for hire or you can
steam up the lake in a rather antiquated steamboat, there is
also some excellent fishing. A narrow gauge steam railway with
1.3 miles of track runs from the car park along the side of
the lake as far as Hunthouse wood, there are intermediate
stops allowing you to alight and explore the area before
catching a return train. Many interesting walks exist around
Rudyard and with two local hostelries no one need go home
hungry or thirsty.
train at
Rudyard Lake
| Railway Web Site |
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Kipling's father, John
Lockwood Kipling, was an artist and scholar who had considerable
influence on his son's work, became curator of the Lahore museum,
and is described presiding over this “wonder house” in the first
chapter of Kim, Rudyard's most famous novel. His mother was Alice
Macdonald, two of whose sisters married the highly successful
19th-century painters Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Sir Edward Poynter,
while a third married Alfred Baldwin and became the mother of
Stanley Baldwin, later prime minister. These connections were of
lifelong importance to Kipling.
John
Lockwood Kipling was involved in the decoration of the Victoria and
Albert Museum in London; He came to the Potteries to work for the
potter Pinder Bourne in Burslem. In 1863 he and Robert Edgar
were awarded joint first prize in the competition for the design of
the facade and elevation of the Wedgwood Memorial Institute in
Burslem.
One of the
terra-cotta panels from the Wedgwood Institute in Burslem - designed
by Rudyard Kipling's father
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Kipling, Rudyard
born Dec. 30, 1865, Bombay,
India died Jan. 18, 1936, London, Eng.
in full Joseph Rudyard Kipling
English short-story writer, poet, and novelist chiefly
remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, his tales and
poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. He
received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. Born
in Bombay, British India, on December 30th 1865, Rudyard Kipling was
the first born child of John Lockwood Kipling and Alice Kipling, who
had settled in India earlier that year. His father was a
professor of architectural sculpture; on his mother’s side there was
a brace of distinguished Aunts and Uncles for the boy. One Aunt was
the mother of Stanley Baldwin, future Prime Minister; another was
married to Sir Edward Burne-Jones, the distinguished Pre-Raphelite
Painter. Kipling’s parents considered themselves ‘Anglo-Indians’,
and so too would their son, though he in fact spent the bulk of his
life elsewhere. Complex issues of identity and national allegiance
would become prominent features in his
fiction. |
more on the Wedgwood Memorial Institute
more on
Burslem |