St James’s Lodge, Postland, Lincolnshire

History of St Jame's Lodge

Mary Liquorice, The Hartleys of Fletton Tower, 1996, argues that St Botolph’s Lodge in The Bricklands by L P Hartley is based upon St James’s Lodge, Postland, the home of L P Hartley’s own grandparents. His grandfather was Mr W J Thompson, local councillor and well-known personality in Crowland and Great Postland. he was a farmer and apparently well off.

In The Bricklands, Richard Mardick’s aunts may well be based on Mary Elizabeth’s sisters., suggesting that the novel is thinly disguised autobiography.

1891 Postland

William James Thompson, 50, farmer, b Lincs

Mary David, 57, b Lincs

Mary Elizabeth, 27, b Lincs

Kathleen Annie, 25, b Lincs

William James, 23, farmer, b Lincs

Evelyn Louise, 19, b Lincs

Fanny, 16, b Lincs

Herbert, 13, b Lincs

Harry Bark Hartley, 31, solicitor, b Yorks

Alice Lancaster, 20, servant, b Thorney

Mary Brighty, 22, housemaid, b Bury

Harry Stokes, 19, groom, b Crowland

In this household are L P Hartley’s father and mother to be, Harry Bark Hartley and Mary Elizabeth Thompson.

According to Mary Liquorice, Harry Bark Hartley was born in Yorkshire. he married Mary Elizabeth Thompson at the Old Wesleyan Chapel in Reform Street, Crowland, in June 1891. H B Hartley was a solicitor with his own practice at Whittlesey and an office near Peterborough cathedral. the newly married couple went to live in Whittlesey, in Eastgate.