Stafford's "Poetry Stone" to be unveiled

Kate Dewey, of Friends of Riverway, is inviting members of the public to join her at 4:00pm on Saturday 17^th May when she will lead a short walk from the Shire Hall Library to the Riverway Field where the short poem written by winner Jean Beasley has been immortalized in stone.

Last May, the 'Watershed Project,' a county council and Friends of Riverway initiative which aims to get everyone to explore Stafford's River Sow, called for  people to submit four line poems about the river which flows through the county town.

From over 60 entries, Jean's poem was chosen as the winner and has since been carved into a specially commissioned piece of art called 'Poetry Stones' which will permanently sit on the banks of the river for all to see, thanks to a grant from County Councillor for Cultural Services, Maureen Compton.

Councillor Compton said: "The poetry competition was a huge success and more than 60 people sent in their four-line poems inspired by the River Sow. Jean should be rightly proud that her self-penned ode to the river will now be immortalised along its banks."

Jean, a keen poet, said Eccleshall Library is one of her favourite places as she is a member of Eccleshall Poetry Group which meets there every fortnight. She said: "I do write a lot of poetry and always have done, but I've never had any published before. It's usually scribbled on the back of envelopes and scraps of paper so I was over the moon when I heard it will be engraved in stone."

"The poem took me about half an hour to write. I live near to the source of the River Sow and was inspired by that. My son owns a wood at Fairoak, near Eccleshall just where the river starts and it's only about three feet wide, which is what I had in mind when I wrote it."

Jean's poem in full reads:

From Fairoak springs the infant Sow

By rock and field to valley floor.

By kingcup bank and bluebell wood,

To swell the Trent at Shugborough