DH Lawrence, who was born in Eastwood in 1885, is still celebrated throughout the town. As well as the street, tea shop and pub names that recall his stories, there are information boards and plaques throughout the town, explaining each area’s connection to the novelist. Earlier this year I was lucky enough to bee able to spend a day there to explore this relationship.

Eastwood is still a working town and surrounded by countryside. Around every corner, between buildings, the town gives you a glimpse of the green fields and hills in the distance. Lawrence loved the countryside around his home. His characters also sought escape in the country. Alan Sillitoe, who also hailed from Nottinghamshire, similarly saw the countryside as a refuge, offering his characters some respite from the drudgery of their every day lives.

I stayed at the Eastwood Hall hotel, once the home of the mine owner, for whom Arthur Lawrence worked. It was a nice enough hotel but it was vast. New accommodation blocks have been built alongside the old hall and the hotel is located in these. This is completely necessary, of course, when you have to cater for an enormous number of guests, but I still think it’s a shame that you can no longer stay in the old hall.

Hotels lose character when they undergo this much expansion; there was no local food on the menu, only fizzy lager behind the bar and a TV playing football constantly. I could have been in any chain pub in the country. I’m sure it’s a good place for a conference or a business retreat, not so much the characterful private hotel I was looking for. Still, the staff were pleasant enough, the room was clean and I had an excellent breakfast to set me up for the day ahead.

The primary reason for choosing a hotel, of course, is location and this one was perfectly placed for a tour of Eastwood. The town is proud of Lawrence and you will find his name and image throughout. While this is touching, it can take a little more digging to find places genuinely known to Lawrence.

Eastwood has a “Blue line trail: A physical blue line, that runs around the town and, if followed, will take you to all the sites associated with Lawrence. It’s clearly a little old and has faded away completely in parts, but it’s still a useful indication that you’re on the right track. I deviated from the line to walk down Princes’ Street. This undeveloped row of houses gives some idea of how the town would’ve looked when Lawrence was born. Just around the corner, you will find the DH Lawrence Birthplace Museum.

The museum preserves the nineteenth century Miner’s cottage and it was fascinating to see a working class home. I particularly enjoyed seeing the wash-houses and outhouses: buildings which would have been shared between several households. Elsewhere, bedrooms and some of the living areas have been preserved, with decoration of the era and some of the Lawrence family’s belongings. One of the rooms is a designated gallery space and there were dome of Lawrence’s paintings on display. I haven’t seen much of his artwork before, and I found these a great insight into the mind of a great writer.

A short walk up the high street to the library, where Lawrence is, once again, commemorated. There is a permanent display here about the writer and his time in the town. They have a huge collection of books and a permanent display depicting Lawrence’s life in the area. Photographs of him look out from every wall, and there are displays about surrounding villages and Lawrence’s connection with them. So nice to see a town celebrate its literary heritage in this way.

There are four houses lived in by the Lawrence family, each one a little bigger than the last. Mrs. Lawrence, who came from a middle-class family, was keen to increase the family’s social standing. each move took them a little bit further up the ladder. The house in Walker Street has an important part to play in the Lawrence story, as it is this one that gives him his most profound childhood memories of Eastwood. The view from here is over the Nottinghamshire countryside he loved. It is also close to the ‘Canyons’: a disused clay-pit where David enjoyed playing as a child.

Around the corner is the Three Tuns. Arthur Lawrence’s favourite pub. I had been warned about this place. It was “a bit rough” apparently. I stopped for a pint and found the whole place perfectly convivial. I was served with a smile and left in peace to read for half an hour. A perfectly good pub, offering good ales and simple, basic food. True, I wouldn’t personally go for piped music or big screen TV, but I wasn’t made to feel uncomfortable, as I have been in places that many would consider ‘posh’.

I walked along the spinney to Breach House. This was Lawrence’s childhood home, where he lived until the age of six. The rent was more than it had been in Victoria Street, as the house had a garden. It has been furnished as it would have been in the 1880s and, as this is the house depicted, as ‘The Bottoms’ in Sons and Lovers, the guide, Carol, was able to quote passages from the novel as she showed me around. There is, apparently, still some local animosity about Lawrence’s work. His use of local people in his novels hurt some of them deeply. Particularly when his stories invited so much controversy.

I was in luck as, also visiting today, was a family who had a connection with the Lawrences. Their Grandmother, Mrs. Anthony, was well known to Mrs. Lawrence and is even mentioned in Sons and Lovers. They were lovely people and I enjoyed talking to them and to hear chatter about local people as we were shown around. I got to see the garden, beautifully maintained with each plant appearing in Sons and Lovers.

I walked back to the hotel, and on, about a mile up the road to Brinsley, to the site of the pit that Arthur Lawrence worked. It is a nature reserve and picnic area.now. The original mine headstocks, once removed to the National Mining museum, have now been replaced. They stand in testament to the area’s once great industrial past, preserved as a leisure opportunity. There is a derelict cottage here too, next to the path to the headstocks. This is “Vine Cottage”. It was once the home of Lawrence’s aunt Polly. Her husband died in a mining accident; an incident recalled by Lawrence in his evocative story, “The Odour of Chrysanthemums.”

It was a fine place to end my tour. It was approaching evening now, the rain was stopping and watched as a rainbow formed above the machinery. It reminded me of the rainbow in which Ursula Brangwen sees the hope for the future. It was a perfect end to my day exploring the life and work of this exceedingly interesting writer.