Follow Tennyson's footsteps in new tourism trail

A poet described as "the Paul McCartney of his day" is being celebrated across Lincolnshire with a year of events and the unveiling of a new tourism trail.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson was born in the county 200 years ago and spent his formative years in the Wolds.

The trail runs from Louth to Grasby, near Caistor, and includes paths he would have trodden and places he would have known after his birth in Somersby on August 6, 1809.

Grace Timmins, collections officer at the Tennyson Research Centre in Lincoln, said: "He was the most important voice in 19th century England and as his childhood and youth were based in this county his imagination was formed by Lincolnshire.

"He was enormously famous in his lifetime and it's difficult for us to comprehend how a poet could achieve that.

"He started off as a bit of a rebel before becoming accepted by the establishment.

"I think a whole lot of his early poetry speaks very much to the adolescent mind because it speaks about stepping out from what you are used to and trying new things."

The research centre has recently received £50,000 from the heritage lottery fund to help conserve the largest collection of Tennyson's personal papers in the world, for future generations.

Councillor Lewis Strange said: "It's absolutely brilliant that we're making something of Lincolnshire's greatest son.

"I just hope that we manage to explain to both primary and secondary school children in the county about the wonderful poet we had in our midst."

And Councillor Michael Clarke welcomed the move, suggesting that on the 200th anniversary of Tennyson's birth it was about time Lincolnshire caught up with other areas that possess historic celebrities.

"It's a great shame that it's taken 100 years for this to happen," he said.

Tennyson was Poet Laureate from 1850 until his death in 1892.