William Barnes: Annual Service of Remembrance, St. Peter's Church, Winterborne Came, Dorset

Details in the William Barnes Society calendar of events

St. Peter's may be a "redundant church", but it's a place of pilgrimage for lovers of the poetry of William Barnes ("Dorset's Saint").

Photos, Jim Potts

Tim Laycock, "The Shy Man"

Text

Brian Caddy, "Our Father's Works"

Allen Knott, at the graveside wreath-laying; 

the graves of William Barnes and Laura (his eldest daughter)

Marion Tait read "Easter Zunday" (here's another version on YouTube)

 and Devina Symes read the lovely "Come and Meet Me"

"...the orchard is a broad sheet of the white 

Of new blossom over blossom on the hedge...

You can saunter, if I'm lated by the clock, 

To some blue-bells for the children on the ridge; 

Or can loiter by the tree-shades, on the rock 

Where the water tumbles headlong by the bridge...

You may dawdle for a furlong on a-head, 

And be welcome at the Weldons, on the knap, 

Where the cowslips are so close grown in a bed, 

That our Poll's hands will have soon fill'd up her lap..."

The Palladian-style Came House

Good to be back in Dorset!

More photos (Dorset County Museum photos)

Some poems by Barnes