Local History

Victoria Rigby is The Lady of Shalott

The film has been made to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Tennyson's birth and stars Victoria Rigby from Grantham as the Lady of Shalott. The Lady of Shalott film premiered at the Odeon Cinema, Lincoln.

Ben Poole at the tailors

The part of Lord Tennyson is played by Ben Poole. Ben was born in Lincoln and is a local businessman who runs a tea shop on Lincoln's Steep Hill, at 45 he is just the right age to play Tennyson in the late 1850s.

The majority of the filming was done in and around Lincoln. The filming of Ben giving Tennyson's reading of The Lady of Shalott to an after dinner audience was filmed in an oak panel room at Ashby Hall.

The Lady of Shalot Film opens at The Collection, Lincoln's museum, on May 30th 2009 and can be seen there until the end of August.

Appointed as Poet Laureate to Queen Victoria in 1850, Tennyson had a long and fruitful career. Even during his own lifetime he was considered a national institution.

Alfred began writing poetry at eight-years-old, and by the age of twelve was in the midst of a 6,000 line epic. His work was first published in a book entitled Poems by Two Brothers which, despite its name, contained work by three of the Tennyson brothers.