John Askham - Shoemaker Poet - Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, UK
Posted by: 
Dragontree
N 52° 17.915 W 000° 41.277
30U E 657654 N 5796765
This is the grave and a plaque on the heritage trail in Wellingborough of John Askham.
Waymark Code: WM55VY
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 11/16/2008
Views: 10
The Wellingborough Council describes this well-loved poet:
visit link
'JOHN ASKHAM
John Askham was born in Wellingborough on 25th July 1825, the youngest of a family of seven children, only two of whom survived. He was educated at Freemans School, but before he had reached the age of 10 he had left School and been put to work shoemaking - within an industry and home environment that confined him closely. At the age of 25, John started to write poetry, inspired by an acquaintance who composed political doggerel. In 1871 he was elected to the newly formed Wellingborough School Board, an indication of the esteem that the town had for this self-educated shoemaker poet. Family life was cruel for John Askham - his first wife died, his daughter by his second marriage died at the age of 8, and his only son at eight months old. It was these personal tragedies that gave much of his work its distinctive grace and charm, tinged with sadness. He threw himself into his work and more volumes of his poetry were published. In the later years of his life his health deteriorated until his death in 1894.'
The plaque is immediately opposite the grave of John and his wife on the church.