Dorothy's Life in Blackburn
Dorothy Stirrup was born on 26th February 1893, at 9 Edgeware Road to Walter and Ada Stirrup (née Cunliffe). Walter was an architect and land agent. Dorothy was their second surviving child, one of eight children. Sadly, the family suffered the loss of two children both of whom died on 25th December. Harold died in infancy on Christmas Day 1889, and Marjory died in 1897.
Dorothy grew up between Walter, who was born in 1890, and Neville, born in 1894. Her brother Gordon followed ten years later in 1904, Mary arrived in 1906, and Robert in 1908.
Over the years the family lived in several houses near Corporation Park.
1900: Elmbank, 52 St Silas’s Road
1903: Hillside, East Park Road
Dorothy was educated at two small private schools.
1903: Dorothy started at Blackburn High School for Girls on 29th September.
1905: The Convent of Notre Dame or ‘The Convent’, Whalley New Road, Blackburn
1905: The Blackburn Weekly Telegraph started to publish Dorothy’s short stories.
1906: The Hawthorns, 41 Dukes Brow
1906: Walter Stirrup acquired Mylah Cottage, Rimington as a family holiday home.
1910: English Language & Literature examination distinction (first place in the country).
1911/12: Dorothy spent a year in France at a Convent.
1914: Dorothy enrolled as a Red Cross nurse in Blackburn. She was engaged in cooking duties.
1914: Received a prize for French Conversation at Blackburn Technical School
1917: On 1st August, Dorothy married Henry Whipple, Director of Education for Blackburn, at the Parish Church in Gisburn.
1917: Glenesk, the couple lived in Henry’s house in Merlin Road.
1919: End of Red Cross duties.
1924: Henry accepted a promotion as Chief Education Officer for Nottingham. Dorothy flourished as a writer during her time there.
1939: Moved to Barton Seagrave near Kettering.
1958: Henry Whipple died on 16th December aged 88 years.
1959: 3, Whinfield Place, Dorothy returned to Blackburn.
1966: Dorothy died on 14th September aged 73 years. She was cremated at Pleasington Cemetery, Blackburn.
Dorothy Stirrup was born at 9, Edgeware Road, Blackburn.
(c) Barbara Riding (BwDLIS)
(c) Barbara Riding (BwDLIS)
The following image is Elmbank, 52 St Silas's Road. Dorothy's family moved here circa 1900
(C) Barbara Riding (BwDLIS)
The Stirrup's moved to Hillside, East Park Road circa 1903
(c) Barbara Riding (BwDLIS)
In 1906, Dorothy's family moved to the following house, The Hawthorns, 41 Duke's Brow
(c) Barbara Riding (BwDLIS)
In 1917, after her marriage to Henry Whipple, Dorothy lived at Glenesk, 8, Merlin Road
(c) Barbara Riding (BwDLIS)
In 1924, after Henry's appointment as Nottingham's Director of Education the couple moved to Nottingham. After Henry's death in December 1958, Dorothy returned to Blackburn.
3, Whinfield Place
(c) Barbara Riding (BwDLIS)
Mylah Cottage, Rimington
The Stirrup's holiday home
(undated newscutting from Barbara Riding's Dorothy Whipple notes)
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Dorothy Whipple’s first autobiographical book The Other Day furnishes the reader with her recollections of her early schooling and High School experiences. In the opening sentence of the chapter entitled
Unwillingly to School Dorothy noted that…
The first school I went to was kept by two sisters, maiden ladies with no qualifications for setting up school other than the possession of a house and the necessity of earning a living.
It was chosen by my parents because it was near home. We just had to go out of the gate, turn the end of three houses to which ours was joined, climb a short, steep hill, and we were there. It was quicker to return home again.
Miss Sophy and Miss Kate were two unfortunate sisters who Dorothy described as follows:
One of life’s grimmest tragedies was played out under my unseeing eyes. Miss Kate and Miss Sophy slowly starved, but no one knew until it was too late. Miss Sophy caught a chill, and having no strength, died. Miss Kate was taken into a charitable institution for the aged poor.
In her first published novel, Young Anne, Dorothy referenced this tragedy:
Something began to be wrong. Miss Kate’s voice was less loud and the big bones in her face stuck out under her skin. Her eyes burned very bright in their sockets and frightened the children into submission.
Following the closure of this school Dorothy was sent to another private school, most likely that run by Miss Alice Barratt and her sister, however, Dorothy didn’t like this school much better.
Dorothy’s name appears on the Register of Pupils attending Blackburn High School on 29th September 1903.
Sadly, this period in her life is described as a Bad Patch in The Other Day. Attendance at the High School nevertheless afforded her two compensations. The first was making a very dear life-long friendship with May Cliff to whom she dedicated The Other Day. Dancing class on a Monday afternoon was the second. Dorothy remembered:
We danced only on Mondays, but we had arithmetic every day. If it had been the other way round, how happy I should have been.
The biggest blow to Dorothy at the school came when an English teacher refused to believe that she had written an original story. You can sense Dorothy’s palpable excitement at the thought of somebody reading her work when she wrote that she was tremendously exhilarated and bounded to school with my exercise book under my arm. Her raw comments after the teacher announced to the class that It was copied from somewhere convey her sense of crushing disappointment and she claimed:
I never did any good at the school after that. I tagged about the other girls. I went through the days. My reports were worse and worse, until in the end my father decided to take me away.
Her father decided to send her to the Convent of Notre Dame on Whalley New Road where Dorothy…
... burst astonished into another world…Life at the Convent was on one side the usual affair of books, desk, marks and lessons, but on the other a progression through a richly-illuminated living missal…
Dorothy described her school days at the Convent in rich detail and the place clearly made an impression on her thinking and behaviour. She noted that I altered my behaviour. I became polite. I changed my diction.
In 1910, Dorothy completed her High School education. An undated news cutting in one of her scrapbooks records the fact that she achieved the significant distinction of being awarded first place in the country for English Language & Literature.
Amongst Dorothy Whipple’s literary archive collection, which is held in Blackburn Central Library, a couple of her notebooks refer to the fact that during 1911 Dorothy spent a year at a Convent in France.
The Blackburn Weekly Telegraph, Saturday November 28th, 1914 makes reference to Dorothy Stirrup receiving a prize in 'French (Conversation)'. Additionally, news cuttings in Dorothy's scrapbooks reveal that she was passionately interested in French history and enjoyed holidays in France.
Source: The Other Day: An Autobiography by Dorothy Whipple
