YOUNGSTERS EXPLORE LIFE & times OF TWO FOREST POETS

Year 3 at St John's C of E Academy, Coleford have been studying the work of Forest of Dean poets Joyce Latham and Catherine Drew. Joyce's poem 'The Water Carriers' took them back to her childhood, in the 1930s and 40s, when her home, like many in the Forest at that time had no running water: it was Joyce's job to go down to the spring-well with her father each morning to collect the water. The class learned that toilets for many people then were still outside affairs - a bucket under a bench in a shed down the garden. For some in the class it was something they had heard about before from their grandparents.

Catherine Drew's work took them back to the early nineteenth-century. She loved to write about the riches of the natural world, as Joyce did too. The class studied a newly discovered poem by Catherine that has just come in to the Forest of Dean Writers Collection being established at the Dean Heritage Centre. The poem describes the different bird song heard and flowers seen in Spring-time. Catherine's other poems described the dramatic changes she saw in the Forest of Dean during her lifetime (1784-1867) under the forces of the industrial revolution. So, where better to go to bring all of this alive than the Dean Heritage Centre?

Starting with a verse from her poem 'The Forest of Dean in Times Past, Contrasted with the Present' local history expert Jim Dean used exhibits in the museum to show how coal was once taken by horse-drawn railroads to small harbours on the River Severn to be shipped to cities such as Gloucester and Worcester - all as described in Catherine's poem. Jim took the children on a walk around Soudley to see the route of the tramroad, the old pack horse bridge, iron age hill fort, and finally the crossing keeper's cottage - part of the  steam railway network that Catherine would have known towards the end of her life as something very modern! 

Year 3 groups then went to DHC's crafting hut to make model coal carts and Severn barges, as described in the poem, under the guidance of arts expert John Slater. The models display lines from Catherine's verse  and will become part of a showcase event at St John's at the end of the school year.  

Before leaving the DHC the children got to take a peak into the backstage engine room of the museum - the archive and stores - with new member of the team Robyn Timmins. Amongst the treasures the students got to see were poems handwritten by Catherine herself, and her own hat that she wore to bed each night. 

These workshops are all part of the Forest of Dean Writers Collection project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, led by University of Gloucestershire's Reading the Forest project in partnership with Dean Heritage Centre. Huge thanks to Jim, John, Joanne and Robyn at DHC, and to Year 3 teacher at St John's Bernadette Lee. Thanks to the children of Year 3 too for making it such a fun day for all of us.

Findings from this pilot workshop will be used to help shape future education programmes at DHC. If you are a school that would like to visit the DHC to find out more about Forest of Dean history - including its writers and poets - contact: [email protected]