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 Charles Dodgson - whose pen
name was Lewis Carroll - and who has achieved world-wide fame lasting 150 years as the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, not only visited Winteringham in September 1863, but also took at
least 6 photographs in the village. His visit to Winteringham occurred close to the time that Alice’s Adventures was written and published.
He had been born at Daresbury, Cheshire, and raised from the age
of 11 close to Ripon where his father was connected with the Cathedral. At this time he would have known of Miss Louisa Erskine, the daughter of the Dean of Ripon.
After going to College in Oxford, and gaining a lectureship in
mathematics there, he learned all about photography and photographic development from his friend Reginald Southey ... the nephew of Robert Southey - the biographer of Henry Kirke White -
who had himself been a pupil at Winteringham 60 years earlier!
On 4th July 1862, Dodgson and his friend Robinson Duckworth
took the three daughters of the Dean of Christ Church on a trip on the River Isis. The girls were Lorina, Alice and Edith Liddell. During this trip he told the tale which later became Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
In the week 4th - 11th September 1863 he visited Winteringham.
The daughter of the Dean of Ripon, whom he knew as Miss Erskine, had married the Reverend TFR Read in 1845,
and was now Mrs Louisa Read. Dodgson travelled from Whitby to Hull with his sister Fanny, crossed the Humber
with Mrs Read who had met him, and then to Brigg and finally Winteringham, arriving at the village at 4:30pm on Friday 4th September 1863.
He preached on the Sunday morning, in aid of the Curates Aid Society, and in the afternoon, Mr Mitchell - the curate
at Winteringham, preached a farewell sermon ... presumably as he was leaving the Parish.
On the Monday, Charles set up his camera and took a photograph of Rev TFR Read, and one of Mr Mitchell. On the
same day, he records that Mrs Read had spoken of getting permission for Charles to photograph the children of her
cousin Lord Darnley, and those of Mrs Parnell who had been one of the ladies in waiting to Queen Victoria. Mrs Read was evidently well-connected.
During the remainder of the week, Dodgson took photographs of Mrs Read, of a child of Reverend Wood’s (who was
at Whitton and Alkborough at the time), and of several children from Winteringham National School. He also
photographed the Church and the Rectory. Sadly only the photographs of the Church and Mrs Read are known to have survived.
Whilst at Winteringham, he met the vicar of Frodingham at dinner, the Rev Weigall.
He left Winteringham at 8:30am on the Friday morning, heading back to Whitby, but visiting Beverley Minster on the
way ... and he was still at Whitby by 5:30pm!
After the publication of the book, and its sequel “Through the Looking Glass” Charles Dodgson became world
famous, receiving fan mail, as well as considerable sums of money. He left behind about 3,000 photographs, of which approximately 1,000 remain today - including those two taken in Winteringham.
Rev Read not only opened the National School in the year that he married Louisa, but also had major renovations
carried out on the Church in 1851, and had the new Rectory built to replace the one known as the “Tudor” Rectory
(but which in fact was built in 1649) - making him the last Rector to live in the Tudor Rectory and the first to live in the Victorian Rectory.
Shortly after the visit of Charles Dodgson, the Reads moved to the picturesque Sussex village of Withyham, where
Louisa died on 12th April 1865 - just 19 months after Charles Dodgson had taken her photograph. She is
commemorated in Winteringham Church by the lectern in the shape of an eagle which is still in use today.
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