D. H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum facts for kids
The D. H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum is a special place in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, near Nottingham. It's a museum dedicated to the famous writer D. H. Lawrence.
This house is where D. H. Lawrence was born way back in 1885. It was one of four homes his family lived in around Eastwood. Today, you can visit the museum to learn about his early life. You can explore the house with a guide or on your own.
Discovering the Museum
When you visit the museum, you first enter through the house next door. This is also where you'll find the museum shop.
Inside Lawrence's Home
The museum house looks just like a working-class miner's home from the late 1800s. Most of the furniture came from the family of the women who started the museum. There are a few original items that belonged to Lawrence's family. Everything else is from the 1880s and from Nottinghamshire. This makes the house feel very real for that time period.
The house is set up exactly how it was when the Lawrence family lived there. You can see different rooms, like the parlour, kitchen, and bedrooms. There's also a shared yard and a washhouse. Signs in each room explain what it was used for. If you take a guided tour, a staff member will tell you all about it.
Exhibits and Art
The museum also has a small exhibit of D. H. Lawrence's early watercolour paintings. There's a special room where you can watch a DVD. This video gives you an introduction to his life in Eastwood and what happened later. You can also see copies of his later paintings.
A very important item added to the collection is Lawrence's original gravestone. It has been on display since September 11, 2009. This date is special because it's his birthday!
Eastwood's Heritage Centre
Before 2016, there was another place nearby called the D. H. Lawrence Heritage Centre. It was also known as Durban House Heritage Centre. This centre had exhibits about the history of Eastwood. It showed what life was like when D. H. Lawrence lived there.
The Heritage Centre taught visitors about the local schools and mining. It also shared information about trams and shops from that time. Of course, it also featured D. H. Lawrence himself and the people he knew. The centre used to have an art gallery and a bistro. It also had rooms for meetings and special events. In 2015, the local council decided to combine the Heritage Centre with the Birthplace Museum. This helped save money and bring everything together.
