End of a dream for Barrie house
A bold plan to re-purpose Peter Pan creator's Dumfries house has failed
MOAT BRAE is an imposing Dumfries mansion, whose garden for Victorian author J.M. Barrie, was the inspiration for his children's novel, 'Peter Pan'. Between 1873 and 1878, Barrie lived in Dumfries and attended Dumfries Academy. He was a frequent visitor to Moat Brae, where he spent hours playing with the children of the Gordon family, who lived there.
“Our escapades in a certain Dumfries garden which was an enchanted land to me was certainly the genesis of this work (Peter Pan),” he announced in 1924 when he received the Freedom of the Burgh of Dumfries, adding that it was at this place he embarked on 'an awfully big adventure'.
The 200 year old building has had a chequered career: first it was a private house, a nursing home, followed by a period of neglect until a housing association bought it in the late 2000s and threatened demolition except for the faç ade. It was saved by the Peter Pan Moat Brae trust, a group of JMB enthusiasts, who bought the house in 2009.
Then the big adventure began. To convert the house into Scotland's first National Centre for Children's Literature and Storytelling, a fund-raising scheme was set up.
With Joanna Lumley as patron, the trust received money from several sources: Historic Scotland (to help restore the vandalised building), The Heritage Lottery Fund, Creative Scotland and many other donors. Dumfries & Galloway Council sold them land adjoining the property for a peppercorn sum.
Supposed to open in 2014, it took another five years (June 1, 2019) before the Centre could set off in calm waters unthreatened by any pirate or clock-swallowing crocodile. But not for long.
Moat Brae closed on August 23 this year, barely five years after it had opened. The Covid pandemic did for it when it had to shut its doors, after lockdown running costs rose, funding dwindled and visitor numbers failed to reach levels hoped for. Like most other Scottish charities, Moat Brae has suffered from the Scottish Government's arts funding freeze.
Of course it's a shame. The Centre was good for the town, for JMB's memory and, above all it was a place that celebrated children's stories, 'their history, heritage and past'.
Nevertheless, children's literature of late has not been neglected. Book festivals up and down the country hold dozens of entertaining and inspiring events for the young. Most children these days can access books quite easily.
Although our first centre for kids' literature has hit the buffers, there are still public libraries in most of our towns, although some have taken a hit with reduced opening hours.
We have robber baron Andrew Carnegie to thank for founding many of them. The actor/comedian Stephen Fry attributes the start of his love of literature to borrowing books as a child from the mobile library van that passed his house.
What strikes me about J. M. Barrie's childhood, is that the period in which he grew up, allowed far more freedom to explore, both in mind and body, than the era of today.
That garden in Dumfries fired his imagination to dream up a host of extraordinary figures: manipulative fairies, canine nannies and a boy who never grew up.
The Victorians produced remarkable authors of children's books: Kenneth Grahame (The Wind in the Willows), Robert Louis Stevenson (Kidnapped), Lewis Carroll, (Alice in Wonderland) and A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh), to name a few.
Although today we have outstanding authors for children like J. K. Rowling, Mhairi Hedderwick, Malory Blackman, Michael Morpurgo and Jacqueline Wilson, whose imaginative writing is as fertile and brilliant as their predecessors, I'm bold enough to argue that J.M. Barrie's genius, and that of his contemporaries, were brought about by a lack of what children today possess in abundance: endless digital imagery, a glut of internet information, instant communication and widespread contacts through social media.
While today's kids have plenty stimulation of a certain kind, they have too little of another. Blame our risk-averse, 'elf and safety society that makes a mockery of children's spontaneity and innate originality.
We're coming up to the season when kids used to thread conkers on strings and use them as 'weapons'. Not now. They're banned like so many other alleged 'dangerous' pastimes.
Admittedly, Barrie was a lucky, middle class boy and not a chimney sweep's son or a child factory worker. As a middle class lad he had time, money, leisure and the freedom to play unheeded, unlike most kids today whose lives are curbed both inside school and out.
Their play is monitored and often encouraged to be competitive. Programmed to the nth degree, they're corralled into neat, woke, protected activities and woe betide any who dare be bored or wish to opt out of the curriculum.
OK, Moat Brae's Children's centre has gone but there are plenty more enchanted lands for kids to discover.
MARY GLADSTONE
