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Bradenham
Bradenham lies approximately five miles south west of
Dereham.
Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925) was born at Bradenham Hall.
His father William Meybolm Rider was a barrister and his
mother was an author and poet. William Rider was
convinced that his son wasn't going to 'amount to much'
and after he attended various public schools he finally
sent him to Africa - which proved to be a huge
inspiration for his forthcoming literary career.
Sir Henry Rider Haggard
The hall, which is an early Georgian house, has a
garden and arboretum and is open to the public at
certain times of the year.
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L.P. Hartley visited the hall as a child - as a guest of
a family called the Moxeys - and it
provided the inspiration for 'Brandham Hall' in his famous novel The Go-Between.
In the novel, an elderly Leo Colston discovers an old diary from
the year 1900 and he begins to recount the events of
that summer. Re-entering the past, he remembers how he
became a 'postman' - transferring letters between the
upper class Marian Maudsley and the working class Ted
Burgess. However, the cross-class love affair was doomed
and ends with the suicide of Burgess. The events of the
summer also have a profound effect upon the rest of
Leo's life - leaving him unable to make emotional
attachments to other people.
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'If Brandham Hall had been Southdown Hill School I
should have known how to deal with it. I understood my
school-fellows, they were no larger than life to me. I
did not understand the world of Brandham Hall; the
people there were much larger than life, their meaning
was as obscure to me as the meaning of the curses I had
called down on Jenkins and Strode; they had zodiacal
properties and proportions.' |
In fact, signs of the zodiac are a leitmotif throughout
the novel.
The book was made into a film in 1970 with the
leading roles being taken by Alan Bates and Julie
Christie; the script was written by Harold Pinter. The
film was shot mainly at Melton Constable Hall in North
Norfolk but also featured a host of other stunning
Norfolk locations including Hickling Broad,
Heydon village and the cathedral close in Norwich.
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Links:
Rider
Haggard Society
Bradenham Hall
St. Andrew's Church |
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Supported
by Norfolk Tourism