The Poetry Orchard

Ledbury Poetry Festival July, 2014

The Poetry Orchard

In many ways Ledbury is where I have roots, not the sort that hold me back, but very good ones that allow me to have a continued connection with the town and the rural areas that were my childhood playgrounds.
I had written about this area the previous autumn when we had visited and made many observations and notes that eventually found their way into poems. So, when through The Ledbury Poetry Festival I became aware of the creation of The Poetry Orchard I knew that I had a theme on which to work and produce a poem or two. Paul Henry, Herefordshire's Poet in Residence was commissioned by Poetry on Loan and Herefordshire Libraries to develop it in partnership with The Big Apple Association.
What a terrific idea as this county is 'Apple County' to me. My Great-Grandfather was an expert on cider apples and it is good to see that there is so much work being done to save the old species of apple trees. I was surrounded by the old orchards when young and there beauty has never left me. I still mourn their loss and the wildlife habitats that went with them.
Paul Henry's instructions that he wanted apple names that could invoke local characters and this allowed me to use my past knowledge to bring these people into my poems. The apple barrel's first one was one of his, entitled, Windfalls.
Two of my poems come under the title, 'The Commoners'. They lived on what was still Tarrington Common before it became swallowed up by the 'Foley Estate' and non-indigenous pines. I have used my memory and their names to bring back some of my past and enjoyed doing it. Stoke Edith Parish sits to the south of Tarrington and Stoke Edith Pippin is one of the old names for a cider apple and two poems were born out of this name. I wrote a fifth one but for a very different reason and I will include that one later with suitable comment.