Eastwood: Three Tuns Pub and Lawrence's Old School

Not long after visiting the D.H. Lawrence sites on Walker Street, I turned a corner and found myself at the Three Tuns pub:

The Blue Line Trail leaflet states that this was "Lawrence's father's favourite pub, where he would call for a drink on the way home from Brinsley Colliery". Of course, all miners must be absolutely parched after a shift down the mine.

Moreover, the leaflet reveals that the Three Tuns was used as the model for the Moon and Stars pub in Sons and Lovers, Lawrence's dark follow-up to The Rainbow, of course.

My general memory from reading Sons and Lovers is the image of a dark, menacing, industrialised machine eating up spontaneous human behaviour and healthy, organic, human relationships.

Inside the Three Tuns, itself, I found pictures of Lawrence juxtaposed with some St. George Cross flags:

And why not, as Lawrence is one of the truly great English writers, alongside Hardy, Wordsworth, and Shakespeare.

Inside the Three Tuns, I also had a nice pint of London Pride (a decent Real Ale) and a ham salad muffin with a wonderfully crunchy green salad (thankfully, without mayonnaise).

After visiting the Three Tuns Pub, on Three Tuns Road, I turned onto Nottingham Road, making my way up to Dovecote Road where I found Lawrence's old school, Beauvale Board School:

 

The Blue Line Trail Leaflet describes the school as a "series of red brick gothic style buildings with turrets and high gabled roofs".

It also reveals that Lawrence "attended" the school between 1893 and 1898 (between 8 and 13 years of age), with him having "disliked school" and having "only gained average results, including in English". 

Despite this, Lawrence "was the first pupil" from Beauvale Board School "to win a scholarship to Nottingham High School".

Thus, Lawrence's time at Beauvale Board School proved to be an important early step in his eventual ascent to become one of England's greatest writers.

Interestingly, at some point in my walk from the Three Tuns pub to Lawrence's old school, I passed the building below:

Which turned out to be Greasley Miners Welfare centre.