Blake's roots by Emma Turner BBC News Online, Nottingham A new name is being added to a list of the East

Midlands' famous literary sons. Previously, poet Lord Byron and novelist D H Lawrence topped the list, but now R omantic poet William Blake has joined them. He is considered the quintessential Cockney poet, but a team at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) have traced his roots back to a village in north Nottinghamshi re. Blake (1757 - 1827) is probably most famous for writing the words to the hymn Je rusalem. 'National figure' A letter of application to the Moravian Church - a radical Christian sect - writ ten by his mother Catherine Wright, has revealed she was born in Walkeringham, n ear Retford. Blake's mother was assumed to have been a Londoner until Dr Keri Davies - resear ch fellow at NTU - discovered the document in the Moravian Church archive, based in Muswell Hill in London. As a result, the university's Faculty of Humanities has been awarded a 110,000 gr ant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board for a two-year investigation int o Blake's lineage. Thank God I never was sent to school, to be flogd into following the style of a fool William Blake Professor David Worrall, who is leading the research, believes the East Midlands connection is a significant discovery. He said: "What is important for this region is that the work of this great natio nal figure - whose work has such an important role in our national identity - co mes from a starting point in this obscure part of Nottinghamshire and a little-k nown religion." The Moravian Church arrived in England from Eastern Europe in the early 18th cen tury before continuing its missionary work in the North American colonies. Catherine left the congregation after the death of her first husband, Thomas Arm itage, and married James Blake, William's father, a year later. Dr Davies believes Catherine's Moravian connection would have influenced the way she brought up her children, with the church's strong emphasis on parents educa ting their children at home. Blake himself wrote: "Thank God I never was sent to school, to be flogd into fol lowing the style of a fool. " Blake's Roots Blake's mother was born in Walkeringham He wrote the words to the hymn Jerusalem His work is full of religious imagery The parallels between the Moravian hymns and Blake's Songs of Innocence - with r eferences to lambs and tigers - have previously been highlighted by scholars. Blake's work, which became part of the wider movement of Romanticism in late 18t h and early 19th century European culture, is filled with religious visions. Dr Davies said: "We are interested in how the Moravian connection links Blake wi th high European culture - the Moravian churches were famed for their music, the ir hymn-singing, their devotional paintings. "But we are also interested in the way Blake's mother's country origins link the poet with a world of rural tradition that has been largely ignored, while Peter Ackroyd's description of Blake as 'Cockney visionary' has held sway." The tiny village on the North Nottinghamshire/Lincolnshire border may seem an un likely site for a radical religious sect, but nearby Epworth in Lincolnshire was the birthplace of John and Charles Wesley, the leaders of the Methodist movemen t.

John Wesley was himself a member of the Moravian church in the early 1740s. In a sense we have brought him back to his proper home Professor David Worrall Professor Worrall believes Blake may have been strongly influenced by his mother 's Nottinghamshire roots. "I had assumed all my working life that Blake talked like a Cockney, but now we can begin to think of him as a man who may even have spoken with the remnants of a Nottinghamshire accent. "In a sense we have brought him back to his proper home." Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/nottinghamshire/3851465.st m Published: 2004/07/15 13:12:04 GMT BBC 2013