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Nottingham resting place of Ada Lovelace, born 205 years ago today

Today (10 Dec) is the 205th birthday of the poet Lord Byron's only legitimate child, Ada Lovelace. (Byron had plenty of other kids, too).

Lord Byron had an acrimonious divorce shortly after Ada was born, and her mother Anabella didn't spare the gossip badmouthing Lord Byron for the rest of her life, helping cement his reputation as a libertine. She also pushed Ada towards the sciences so she wouldn't follow in his footsteps, and she, a very bright girl, went on to make stellar contributions to the unromantic fields of mathematics and computer programming -- Ada Lovelace is credited for being the first computer programmer, because she worked with Charles Babbage to get his 'difference engine' and early analytic computers up and running.

Ada and her absent father are buried in the Byron baronial cemetery vault at the Church of St Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.

Has anyone been to the Hucknall area and visited the cemetery or their church?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St_Mary_Magdalene,_Hucknall

What's there to see in the area?

Ada Lovelace had a pretty remarkable life as an aristocrat and person of letters, until she died of cancer in her mid-30s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace

Posted by
6553 posts

And there's a computer language named Ada in her honor. Still used, I believe.

Posted by
1682 posts

I've been to Hucknall before. As a youth and very young man, I spent probably three years in England, on and off, mainly with families in the Nottingham/Mansfield area. Hucknall, as I recall, had an outdoor swimming lido, or one very close to it. Swimming in freezing water, lots of fun.

I visited Byron's ancestral home, Newstead Abbey, a few times. We used to have picnics there. Sorry, I don't know about Ida Lovelace but I am aware of the following strange case, which took place close to Newstead Abbey: https://paranormalhauntings.blog/2018/03/06/a-sad-haunting-the-tale-of-elizabeth-sheppard/

Posted by
2825 posts

thanks, emma, for sharing that info about Allegra -- it looks like she was un/lucky to be born into a station and moment in European development where notions of childhood were in transition towards our modern conceptions of the life stage but not quite established. Very interesting.