Curiouser and curiouser – new Wonderland production starts today

Were characters in Alice in Wonderland inspired people the book’s author met in Lincoln?

A link between the city and the author Lewis Caroll was discovered - just as a production of his most famous work was in rehearsals.

Lincoln School of Creative Arts is staging Alice in Wonderland starts today and runs until December 21. Coincidentally archivists at Lincoln Cathedral searching through a bundle of correspondents have found a letter sent from Charles Lutwidge Dodgson – better known as Lewis Caroll – inviting Henry Ramsden Bramley, Precentor of Lincoln from 1895 to 1905, to a dinner party.  As well as letter there is also a menu and seating plan and the collection seems to hint the party could have inspired Carroll.

Henry Ramsden Bramley was, at the time, famed for his Victorian revival of Christmas carols with the 1871 publication of Christmas Carols, New and Old. This book popularised many of today’s favourite Christmas songs including The First Nowell, God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen and The Holly and the Ivy.

To mark the find, costume designer, Helen Symonds, has created a fabric using images of the documents, which has been stitched into the costumes for the production of Alice in Wonderland, which is taking place at Lincoln Arts Centre. Cast members from the show visited Lincoln Cathedral to film a promotional video and were able to see the original documents from the Cathedral collection. 

There is still much to be discovered about the history of the documents as Fern Dawson, Curator at Lincoln Cathedral explained: “This is an amazing find, which we are delighted to have in the collection here at the Cathedral, but it has raised more questions than answers. For example, it is not known where Bramley and Caroll met; it may have been at Oxford University, or through the mutual acquaintance of famous composer and organist Sir John Stainer, who played the organ at Westminster Abbey for the wedding of Alice Liddle – the inspiration for ‘Alice in Wonderland’.”

Those present included Professor Bartholomew Price, a mathematician at Oxford whose nickname was ‘Bat’ as his lectures went above the audiences’ heads. He is the inspiration for the poem Twinkle Twinkle, Little Bat, recited by the Mad Hatter at his tea party.

Also at the table was William Ranken, Vicar of Sandford-on-Thames. He was another Oxford mathematician, also a great chess rival of Charles. The chess set features heavily as a theme in Alice Through The Looking gGass.

There is also another mystery to solve; why is a quote from the Tempest - The Cloud-Capped Towers - written down the centre of the table in the seating plan? What does it mean? As Caroll himself would have put it – curiouser and curiouser.

Tickets for the production can be found at https://lincolnartscentre.co.uk/event/alice -in-wonderland-2025/