The Real Alice in Lyndhurst

Did you know that Alice Hargreaves, née Liddell, the inspiration for the Alice in Wonderland stories, lived in Lyndhurst for 50 years? Alice and her family had lived at Christ Church College Oxford where her father was Dean. Also living at Christ Church was a young mathematics tutor, Charles Dodgson, the eldest of ten children. Dodgson became friends with the family and sometimes took the children on boat trips down the river, entertaining them with songs, jokes and stories. One story that he invented about Alice meeting a white rabbit and falling down a rabbit hole amused her so much that she asked him to write it down for her, which he did, adding his own drawings.

Dodgson later had his story published, under the name of Lewis Carroll, as a serious mathematician could not be seen as a children’s writer. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the sequel Through the Looking Glass have never been out of the print since and are known worldwide. In September 1880 Alice married wealthy Reginald Gervis Hargreaves who owned the 114 acre Cuffnells estate with beautiful mansion opposite Swan Green Lyndhurst. Sadly the house was pulled down after the Second World War and only the old lodges remain. Alice thought Cuffnells was ‘Wonderland come true to Alice at last’ when she first saw it.

The Hargreaves have many links with both St Michael’s, where they had their own pew, and Christ Church Emery Down where the East window is dedicated to Reginald’s father. Alice’s three sons were christened at St Michael’s by her father, the Rev’d Dean Liddell. The family contributed generously to school and church funds, village activities and facilities including the Fenwick Hospital, Workmen’s Club and Fire Station. There are memorials to two of her sons, Alan and Reginald (Rex), who were killed in the Great War, in St Michael’s and on Christ Church Lych Gate.  

There is a modest stone Hargreaves tomb on the south side of the church. In later life Alice was tired of her fame gained she said by ’Simply doing nothing.’   The family respected her wishes to be remembered as a wife and mother who did her best for the village.