There’s more exciting projects coming out of The Ted Hughes Network based at the University of Huddersfield:
On Saturday 21st March, 1.00-3.00pm, a launch event for the Hebden Royd dimension of the ‘Discovering Ted Hughes’s Yorkshire’ literary and heritage trail will take place at Mytholmroyd Community Centre, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, with poetry readings by poets Carola Luther and David Morley, and a short introductory talk by Steve Ely. The event is free of charge and the formal aspects of the event will be prefaced by a wine reception—all are welcome.
‘Discovering Ted Hughes’s Yorkshire’ is a series of six trail maps commissioned by the Ted Hughes Network at Huddersfield University and designed by Hebden Bridge cartographer Chris Goddard. The commissioning and printing of the maps was made possible by generous funding from Hebden Royd Town Council
As THS members well know, Hughes was born in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, grew up in Mexborough, South Yorkshire and completed his national service in Patrington, East Yorkshire. By the time he went to Cambridge University at the age of 21 he was largely formed as the poet of his subsequent fame. The ‘Discovering Ted Hughes’s Yorkshire’ trail maps, informed by up-to-date scholarship and local expertise will open-up all three of Hughes’s Yorkshire landscapes to local people and tourists alike.
The three Hebden Royd maps— focused on Mytholmroyd, Crimsworth Dean and Colden Clough/Heptonstall—are the first fruits of the project and have been made possible by the generous support and funding provided by Hebden Royd Town Council. Copies of trail maps will be distributed free at the launch and will subsequently be made available to the public via retail outlets and as free downloads from the Ted Hughes Network website, potentially opening-up the trails to a global audience. The other three maps—two based in the Mexborough area and one in Patrington—will be launched and made available in the summer.
The trail maps will allow people to self-guide around Hughes’s Hebden Royd landscapes, but a range of more formal activities are planned to publicise the trails and to encourage people to engage with Hughes’s work and legacy in the area, including school and community creative writing workshops and a range of guided walks. All the activities will be publicised locally and more widely and will be free of charge. During the activities, participants will not only find out more about Hughes’s life and work and how it relates to the region, but through that work will engage with creativity, local heritage, landscape, ecology and environment.