Page 11 - Household Words - Dickens

To put Dickens’s visit to Redditch in context, read the full story in Sharon Burton
Fletcher’s book - Dickens on the Ditch. Sharon introduces the story thus……

“It's staggering that Redditch has never boasted about having had such a prestigious visitor
as Charles Dickens. The author wrote about the town both in 1843 and later in 1852. From
his first visit, we have this excerpt taken from his magazine:

The writer happened to be passing through the main street of Redditch at a time when the
work-people were pouring from the different needle-factories, on their way home to dinner;
and an opportunity was thus afforded for observing not only the large number of persons
employed in this manner, but also the air of respectability which generally pervaded them. In
which many of the operatives in the 'Great Metropolis' might imitate them with advantage.

This piece published in The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge', by Charles Knights & Co in 1843, paints a vivid image of Charles Dickens, it was
taken from the diary of an 1830 Harvard Graduate, Levi Newton, after Mr Dicken's tour of
America:

His external appearance did not answer to our puritanical notions of a literary man: his dress
was that of a genteel rowdy in this country and no one, who did not know, could have supposed
him to be "the immortal Boz." A stout Prince Albert frock coat, a flashy red vest with a dark
figured scarf about his neck, fastened with a pin to which was attached any quantity of gold
chain and his long flowing hair gave him the air of a fashionable young man.

An interesting insight into how he presented himself!”

So what did this dashing chap find so fascinating about Redditch and how did Redditch come to
be on his path?
Sharon Burton Fletcher
Page: 11