Alice in Wonderland and Lewis Carroll's legacy 150 years on

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been passed down from parent to child from one generation to the next since 1865 with young readers eager to go down the rabbit hole even to this day.

More than 25 adaptations of the weird and wonderful story have reached the screen including silent movies, a Czech ballet film, a Japanese anime and, of course, Hollywood productions.

But ask the average person and they might not know that the author grew up in Daresbury and spent a lot of his time daydreaming at Walton Hall when it belonged to the Greenall brewery family.

Carroll was born in the parsonage at Daresbury in 1832. All that remains of it now is a brick outline depicting where the original building once stood.

But a lasting part of his childhood is All Saints Church where his father was the vicar.

Then he was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and he lived in the village for 11 years, where his early experiences and vivid imagination were thought to have created a lot of the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland.

It was Carroll's birthday on Sunday – he would have been 187 – so Weekend paid a visit to the Lewis Carroll Centre at All Saints Church to reflect on his legacy.

The part Lottery-funded £850,000 centre, which opened in 2012, welcomes around 10,000 a year thanks to the enthusiasm of volunteers like Myra Fye and Irene Rutter.

Myra said: "In Guildford they have the looking glass statue, Oxford make a big thing of him and even in New York there’s a tea party statue. But it is surprising the connection is not better known in Cheshire.

"We have people visiting here from Japan and Russia and all over the place. They’re quite determined to make their way here and when you think about it, it’s not the easiest place to get to.

"I thoroughly enjoy meeting visitors and to hear where they’ve come from. Sometimes they live nearby and will say they never realised or they’ve passed and always meant to call in."

The permanent exhibits at the centre – including some at knee height for young visitors – reveal Carroll's connections to Daresbury and Warrington as well as his later life and writing Alice in Wonderland, aged 30.

Irene said: "He described his home as ‘an island farm amid broad seas of corn’. It’s still an isolated spot. He was one of 10 children while they were at Daresbury – the family had another child after they left.

"He was the eldest boy and they were in this house with no running water or electricity. He was really in charge of entertaining the children and he set up his own newspaper in the house and played games and told them stories.

"So this storytelling started from a young age. I often think about what that household must have been like with 10 young children in it.

"I think his vivid imagination stemmed from those early days when he would develop these stories for his brothers and sisters."

Myra added: "He read classic stories as well. He was always keen on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. In his family newspaper he would parodies of those ancient stories and he would do all these weird and wonderful drawings to illustrate them."

So why do they think Alice's Adventures are still remembered and celebrated more than 150 years on?

Irene said: "He was one of the first to write a book like that for children that hadn’t got a religious background to it. A lot of the children’s books up to then had been based on religious stories or morals.

"But saying that there are so many hidden meanings in Lewis Carroll’s writing that are very often lost on children. He was very witty for his day. After the Bible and Shakespeare he is one of the most quoted writers."

Myra added: "There is a lot of wordplay which children might well miss but he loved playing with words."

Indeed, the 'coded' novel hinted at a lot of Carroll's other passions. He wrote more than 200 books, many of which were about mathematics and logic.

Carroll also wrote tens of thousands of letters – all in purple ink – including some in Latin, Greek, hieroglyphics, mirror writing and word spirals.

He particularly enjoyed crafting 'rebus' letters which use a combination of illustrations and words and visitors to the centre are invited to solve one for themselves.

Carroll was a keen photographer too which was a new invention when he was a child. He bought his first camera in 1856 and took some 3,000 photos.

At All Saints Church you can also see the Wonderland-inspired stained glass windows which were commissioned to mark what would have been Carroll's 100th birthday.

Meanwhile, Alice's story continues to weave its magic on Myra and Irene's families.

Irene has read it to her five grandchildren and Myra's daughter Xie was the editor of the 'Dodo News' (a fan magazine set up by Daresbury Lewis Carroll

Society) when she was a teenager and ran it for five years.

Myra was given the book by her aunt when she was eight. Her copy was illustrated by Philip Gough, who grew up in Warrington.

She said: "I did love my copy of the story. I still have it somewhere all squashed and a little worse for wear."