Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, was born as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson on January 27, 1832, in the Cheshire village of Daresbury. His father was the vicar of All Saints’ Church, where Charles, his third child and eldest son, was baptized.
Now a major pilgrimage site to fans of Alice, Daresbury Church is home to Lewis Carroll Centre, where the author’s biography and history of his books are shown on panels, as well as a small gift shop and a stained-glass window featuring the characters from Wonderland and Carroll himself.
Crowd-funded by Carroll fans to commemorate the centenary of his birth, the Lewis Carroll Window in the Daniell Chapel was designed by artist Geoffrey Webb and unveiled in 1935. It depicts the nativity scene attended by saints and biblical figures, along with Lewis Carroll—a clergyman himself—and the “dream-child” Alice with blonde hair and a headband.
Below the nativity are the denizens of Wonderland, based on the John Tenniel illustrations: the White Rabbit, Bill the Lizard, the Dodo, the Caterpillar, the Fish-Footman, the Hatter, the Dormouse, the March Hare, the Duchess, the Gryphon, the Mock-Turtle, the Cheshire Cat, the Knave and Queen of Hearts.
In addition to the Wonderlandish theming, the church is rich in Jacobean decor with carvings of angels, a griffin, and a green man, which Carroll himself must have (more than) once seen as a boy.
