Pictures of the Past : “Old Alice” (1), Little Eaton

Old Postcard of “Old Alice” (1) (Little Eaton)

The story behind this postcard is the following tragic tale:

“The village's well known character Alice GRACE was born in Derby in 1867 and moved to Little Eaton with her parents when she was a young woman. After her parents died, Grace was evicted from her home for non-payment of rent. She then spent her life moving from shed to shed and derelict building to derelict building and finally into a series of bacon boxes. In 1908 she moved to the Shardlow Workhouse and lived until 1927. She is buried in Little Eaton.”
[From Film 942.51/L2 Item 6 - ‘The Memorial Inscriptions of St Paul's, Little Eaton’]

The card is postmarked 1906 - the day and month are unreadable.

(Information provided by Carol Hare/Rosemary Lockie)

Reference
[1] “A collaborative guide, one that was written and kept up to date by the people who used it, in real time, might be a neat idea” - Douglas Adams, founder of h2hg, “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition”, which has an article: Old Alice in the Bacon Box - the Little Eaton Hermit. A followup comment to the article from a relative says Alice chose her lifestyle, and was proud of it.


Image contributed by Carol Hare on 4th June 2003.
This is a Genealogy Website
URL of this page: https://places.wishful-thinking.org.uk/DBY/LittleEaton/OldAlice1.html
Logo by courtesy of the Open Clip Art Library