Little Jim’s Cottage

Little Jim’s Cottage once stood along St Helena Road, Polesworth and was immortalised in Victorian poetry. It was once a typical thatched cottage of the English countryside, with a cottage garden of flowers and butterflies and oak beams decorated with brasses. However, the cottage fell into disrepair during the 1960s, prior to being lost to fire in 1971.

Memorial stone marking the site of Little Jim’s Cottage along St Helena Road

The cottage was remembered by English poet, Edward Farmer in his verse Little Jim (The Collier’s Dying Child). Not much is known of Farmer, other than he was the Chief Detective of the old Midland Railway and was a writer, famous for his tragic verses, which were published in 1846 in an anthology of his work called ‘Ned Farmer’s Scrapbook.

Little Jim’s Cottage in the 1950s ( (Reproduced from the “Our Warwickshire” website © Warwickshire County Record Office, reference PH 269/4)

The inspiration for the poem Little Jim is said to have been a visit to the cottage by Farmer one stormy evening. Farmer is said to have sought shelter from the storm and was greeted by a praying mother next to her dying son’s bedside. Her son, Little Jim is said to have passed away that evening, upon the return of his father, a local miner. The full poem is below.

By Simon Rose

Chair Polesworth Parish Council