Dymock Poets Cottages Walk

There are a number of walks, varying in length, set between Dymock and Preston on the B4215. 

The Dymock Poets countryside covers an area from May Hill in the south to the Malvern Hills in the north, most famous for its wild daffodils, which once grew in profusion in the meadows and woods. Despite changes in farming practices there are still many places where wild daffodils can be seen in late March and early April. 

May Hill is wonderfully mysterious. The clump of Scots pine trees on top of what looks like an upside down soup plate make the hill a visible landmark from all over Gloucestershire and Herefordshire.

Shortly before the First World War, three poets – Lascelles Abercrombie, Wilfrid Gibson and Robert Frost – came to live near Dymock in Gloucestershire. Three poets visited them: Rupert Brooke, John Drinkwater , Edward Thomas and Eleanor Farjeon. All the cottages that the poets lived in are passed on various walks, but they are now private properties. Their move to Dymock was a conscious decision to work in and respond to the English countryside, to seek a literary idyll. They produced their own journal, New Numbers. At the encouragement of Frost, in particular, Edward Thomas turned from literary journalism, to become one of the great English poets of the century. Frost himself gained a new impetus, while Rupert Brooke found Dymock and its occupants a fixed artistic centre during his world-wide travelling.

Robert Frost and Edward Thomas walked May Hill, and Frost and his wife could see it from their cottage, Little Iddens, which we passed on our walk. They referred to it in letters home. And it’s on May Hill that Edward Thomas began writing Words.

Glyn Iddens temporary home of Eleanor Farjeon

Littel Iddens the 1914 home of the Frost Family

the village water supply

There is a permanent exhibition about the Dymock Poets in St Mary’s Church, put together by local people. March and April a dedicated team women provide tea and cakes for travellers and walkers.

Drama and Daffodils Part II

Repeating the success of last weekend, this week ...

The play was "The Absence of War" at the Everyman Cheltenham. We first saw this play at the National in London some years back with the amazing John Thaw playing The Rt Hon George Jones M.P. (read Neil Kinnock). Wasn't sure if that performance could be matched but it was, and with ease, by Reece Dinsdale. Congrats to the entire cast for a magnificent play!

BY DAVID HARE. DIRECTED BY JEREMY HERRIN.

A HEADLONG, ROSE THEATRE, KINGSTON 

AND SHEFFIELD THEATRES CO-PRODUCTION

It's now or never for George Jones. The charismatic leader of the Labour Party needs to get out of opposition and into Number Ten. Plagued by a hostile media, beset by divisions in his party and haunted by his own demons, George has three weeks to convince the Great British Public that he's their man. But how much compromise is he prepared to make? How can you truly appeal to the man in the street from the House of Commons? And which tie should he wear for Prime Minister's Questions? 

Headlong presents a vigorous new production of David Hare’s funny, stinging political drama on a timely national tour during the build up to the 2015 General Election.

Then off to  Oxenhall for the second of the three Gloucestershire daffodil weekends... 

... finishing with the traditional tea n cake at the Poets Church Dymock :-p

Gloucestershire’s Golden Triangle

The Daffodil Way in the Leadon Valley, on the border of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, is a carpet of gold in March and April. There are few places in Britain where you can see flowers growing in the wild in such profusion. The route also passes through pretty apple orchards.

 
The daffodils, once grown for market, have naturalised in the fields and woodland at Oxenhall, Kempley and Dymock . Villages take turns at providing teas and local produce at the weekend. The attractive village of Dymock has a lovely church with an exhibition about the 'Dymock Poets' who included Rupert Brooke an Robert Frost. During the daffodil season, teas are often served in to church.
 









 
But it’s not just in the woods where daffodils are to be found. We have a number of interesting homegrown ones too :)