Birthday walk remembers Edward Thomas in poet’s centenary year

IT WAS a particularly poignant annual trek this year to remember beloved Steep poet Edward Thomas.

Around 50 people gathered in the village for the Edward Thomas Fellowship Birthday Walk in the centenary year of his death at the Battle of Arras, on Easter Monday, 1917.

The theme for the day was ‘Edward Thomas in France: in the trenches and on the front line’, with appropriate poems and prose read out at strategic points.

The strenuous five-mile hike took in a visit to Bee House, Edward’s hill-top study, and the memorial stone on the Shoulder of Mutton Hill.

The readings this year were from Robert Macfarlane’s book ‘The Old Ways’, tracing Edward’s journey from southern England, across northern France to the Western Front.

There was an afternoon walk too, with the highlight a visit to 2 Yew Cottages, Thomas’ third and final home in Steep.

There followed afternoon tea and a birthday tribute at All Saints Church for all walkers. The winner of the Edward Cawston Thomas Poetry Competition was announced, and the author read her prize-winning verse.

A dramatic reading of Carol Ann Duffy’s The Christmas Truce rounded off a memorable day.