A Walk Along the Cornbrook Part 6: Green Hay
Published in
1 min readNov 8, 2022
Original content by Dr John Piprani. Edited by Grant Collier.
The author Thomas de Quincey was brought up in a house called Green Hay, that had the Cornbrook running along the bottom of the garden. In his recollections of his childhood at Green Hay, De Quincey recalled how the Cornbrook had prevented a roaming rabid dog from entering their property. This film locates the footprint of the now disappeared Green Hay within the contemporary landscape.
De Quincey is perhaps best known for Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, an autobiographical account of his opium addiction. The mansion of Green Hay was built by the de Quincey family in 1791, and the current area Greenheys is named after de Quincey’s childhood home.
Discussion points:
- How did Thomas De Quincey’s work reflect his life experiences?
- How do historic natural and legal features in the landscape persist through modern developments?
