Image: The travelling Poetry Takeaway stall
Poets will visit three English Heritage sites to craft bespoke poems celebrating everyday heritage as part of a pilot project that could become national by 2026.
A pilot project to celebrate England’s everyday heritage through poetry is set to visit three sites over the coming months.
‘A Heritage Portrait of England’ will see poets from travelling poetry event group The Poetry Takeaway visiting the charity’s sites to craft poems.
In the pilot project, which the charity hopes to evolve into a national project from 2026, the poetry group will visit Temple Church in Bristol, Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire and Hylton Castle in Sunderland on 28 June.
At each of the sites, the poets will “explore, through conversation, what is important to people in their day-to-day life – from food and family gatherings to the local high street, sporting events, festivals, and everything else in between” English Heritage explained.
Ruth Haycock, Interpretation Curator at English Heritage, said the project aims to “create a contemporary heritage portrait of England, expressed through poetry”.
Haycock said the project was inspired by the work of photographers such as Tony-Rae Jones, Daniel Meadows ‘The Free Photographic Omnibus’ and Simon Roberts ‘We English’.
Michael Bolger from The Poetry Takeaway added: Individually, our poets’ bespoke, handwritten verses will give an intimate insight into one person’s connection to their community and place, but collectively their work will build a fascinating snapshot of England today. We cannot wait to get started.”
