The Enid Blyton Society

Robert Houghton wrote: Personally I think it would be much nicer to have a statue of her somewhere like Swanage or Beaconsfield.

Oh, I dunno - if it were in Beckenham I could visit it much more easily! That's less than 15 miles from where I live.

I see from the News Shopper article, which was published in 2012, that even though they had an 80% yes vote from readers for an Enid Blyton statue, they presumably haven't got one yet. Still, it's nice to know there's such public support for the idea.

Maybe Swanage could have a set of statues or sculptures of the Famous Five? (Except there'd then be the inevitable argument over whether they should be based on Soper or Maxey's illustrations... )

Katharine wrote:There's a blue plaque on a house in Chaffinch Road in Beckenham in Kent, where Enid lived as a little girl. I went on a walking tour of her houses two years ago, but can't remember if any of the other houses had plaques on or not.

The plaque in Chaffinch Road actually has the Society name on it, but it was paid for by the couple who owned the house at the time. It would be nice to think that they did so because they were Blyton lovers, but all they were trying to do was to increase the value of the house when they sold it shortly afterwards.

Ah I remember that walking tour day, very well. It was fabulous, visiting the places where Enid lived, and that lovely couple in Chaffinch Road, allowing us all into their home and walking all over it. They were amazing, the pair of them. I wonder if they still live there.

I'm all for a statue in Beckinham and Beaconsfield too. There is of course a bust sculpture of Enid in the Knoll House Hotel that you can see. It's in their reading room.

A statue in Beckenham would probably be most appropriate since that's where she came from. Unfortunately I don't see it happening any time soon.

Two years ago Beaconsfield held a week's celebration but I don't know of anything permanent which marked the occasion.
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There was a Noddy figure outside the Town Hall when I visited, Daisy.

Could have been a Big Ears too, I can't remember now. I think that may be permanent.

Julie2owlsdene wrote:Ah I remember that walking tour day, very well. It was fabulous, visiting the places where Enid lived, and that lovely couple in Chaffinch Road, allowing us all into their home and walking all over it. They were amazing, the pair of them. I wonder if they still live there.

Yes, it was a very enjoyable day seeing all the houses and the church. As Tony said, the couple in Chaffinch Road sold the house not long after our visit.

It would be lovely to see a statue of Enid Blyton in Beckenham.

I didn't spot the 'sold their house' Anita, what a shame. They had done such a lot of work on it too. I guess there intention was as Tony says to increase the value, but there again, who wouldn't I guess.

A statue of Enid would be great wherever it was placed, but although she was indeed born in Beckenham, I still feel Beaconsfield is a better choice because this is where she was happiest and lived the longest - most of her childhood in Beckenham seems to have been fairly unhappy. However I agree that its not likely to happen, unfortunately. If we passed the centenary of her birth without a statue being erected then its unlikely to be commissioned now.

Enid was actually born in East Dulwich, so that throws yet another location into the mix.

Maybe we should just campaign to have a memorial outside every house she ever lived in, church she attended, school she taught in, hotels she stayed in, book shops she signed autographs in............

Seriously, I would have thought Beaconsfield would be better as that's where Green Hedges was, and is probably the address that most people would associate with her, although I don't know how many of younger generations would know that, I didn't until I joined the EBS.

I wouldn't have known where just about anywhere in England was when I started reading Enid Blyton (actually, I probably wouldn't have known where Britain itself was on a world map at that age), but that didn't stop me from loving her books!

I think Beaconsfield or Bourne End - or Swanage, in a more public location - would be the most appropriate sites for one or more official memorials to Enid, though of course there'd almost certainly be the backlash of "she was racist, she was sexist, she only wrote dumbed-down ephemera" etc. Strange how there doesn't seem to have been a backlash against Philip Larkin having a memorial in Westminster Abbey on the grounds that he was racist, misogynistic and obscene...

Katharine wrote:Enid was actually born in East Dulwich, so that throws yet another location into the mix.

Maybe we should just campaign to have a memorial outside every house she ever lived in, church she attended, school she taught in, hotels she stayed in, book shops she signed autographs in............

Seriously, I would have thought Beaconsfield would be better as that's where Green Hedges was, and is probably the address that most people would associate with her, although I don't know how many of younger generations would know that, I didn't until I joined the EBS.

That's quite true - I had forgotten she wasn't born in Beckenham...as everyone seemed to think Beckenham was the perfect place, I sort of presumed she was born there! I agree Beaconsfield is the place Enid chose to live most of her life - and its a nice town which could do with something to commemorate Enid Blyton (apart from the model house and noddy gate I mean). The very fact that you didn't know Enid lived in Beaconsfield until you joined EBS is proof that a statue to her should be placed there. I didn't know either until I joined EBS - so it should be made known that Beaconsfield is Blyton Country even more than Dorset!

There are three plaques in the original area, the one above, one at East Dulwich and one at Elfin Cottage.

The problem with any statue is who would pay for it. I got asked if the Society would pay for the statue of Noddy in Beaconsfield - it wasn't very big and it certainly wasn't very cheap (as far as I remember it was about the cost of two years worth of Journals, several thousand pounds)! I politely declined!

I wonder who has paid for the Noddy that's in front of the Town Hall in Beaconsfield. Do you know, Tony. Is it the Beasonfield Society! Or was the one I saw there just for a short while and not a permanent fixture.

I can't even remember now, exactly what it looked like? I must be getting old!!

Doing an image search on google, I can't even see any Noddy statue in Beaconsfield - only the gate with Noddy and Big Ears on it.