The Walk: St George centenary walk

When his train was delayed at the tiny railway station he made famous, Edward Thomas was on his way to see Robert Frost.

For a short time leading up to the Great War, a number of celebrated poets walked the lanes and fields of the area where three counties meet.

The ‘Dymock Poets’ are generally held to have been Lascelles Abercrombie, Rupert Brooke, Wilfrid Gibson, John Drinkwater, Thomas and Frost, who was from New England. In September 1914, the American moved his family in with the Abercrombies in the hamlet of Ryton, a mile or so east of Dymock.

Their charming half-timbered cottage was called The Gallows – after the tale of a legendary character.

“Jock of Dymock” spent his evenings rushing out at passers-by with a set of antlers strapped to his head.

It was probably quite a relief to all and sundry when he was caught poaching the king’s deer, and hanged on the spot.

Reached by steps from a sunken lane, The Gallows backed on to Ryton Firs, the title of Abercrombie’s most famous poem: From Dymock, Kempley, Newent, Bromesberrow, Redmarley, all the meadowland daffodils seem Running in golden tides to Ryton Firs.

Two poems in Robert Frost’s prolific output owe their inspiration to his time here. The Sound of Trees was influenced by the elms next to The Gallows, which were speaking to him about difficult decisions with which the war was vexing him; and The Thatch (1928) regrets it falling into disrepair: They tell me the cottage where we dwelt, Its wind-torn thatch goes now unmended.

Of the group, Frost and Thomas were the most regular walkers of the Dymock countryside. One day they found themselves confronted by Lord Beauchamp’s man “Bott” in Ryton Firs. Frost, claiming the same right to roam his landlord Abercrombie enjoyed, stood up to the surly gamekeeper even when he fetched his shotgun.

Thomas, on the other hand, was much more reticent and backed down. The encounter was to leave him haunted, reliving the moment over and over again.

His poetry and letters to Frost betray a keen sense of fear and feeling diminished in his close friend’s eyes. Thoughts of cowardice troubled him especially at a time when others like Rupert Brooke had found it in themselves to face genuine danger overseas.

As the walks and talks with Frost continued, Thomas gradually came around to realising the urgent need to protect – and if necessary, fight for – the life and the landscape around him.

“Something, I felt, had to be done before I could look again composedly at English landscape,” he explained.

Finally, he came to terms with himself and he volunteered for the Artists Rifles. When the moment came he would hold his nerve and face the enemy guns. “That’s why he went to war,” said Frost.

While Edward Thomas was killed on the first day of the battle of Arras, at Easter in 1917, Frost was to live until 1963, and recite his poem The Gift Outright at President Kennedy’s inauguration.

Our Saint George’s Day walk is exactly one hundred years after the death of Rupert Brooke. Close to the modern Gallows, where his sonnet The Soldier was published, you can now visit a hut in a Ryton garden for information on the Dymock Poets.

The startling “stag” nights are consigned to history, but strolling the woodland rides, you may still feel under scrutiny: And in the larch woods on the highest boughs The long-eared owls like grey cats sitting still Peer down to quiz the passengers below.

Dymock and Ryton The Poets’ Paths. Crop, pasture, woodland edges, nature reserves and daffodils.

5¾ mile moderate ramble. 10 stiles, several footbridges.

Motorway crossings. Map: OS Explorer 190, Malvern Hills and Bredon Hill.

The Route.

1. Dymock. The Beauchamp Arms. Park with landlord’s permission.

Facing Newent direction, east, TL, past parish hall, Hazlehurst to cross Leadon at Long Bridge. After 100m, TR through gate along Poets’ Path No. 1. Keep ahead over stile by river elbow, and angle slightly L at next hedge end to cross stile down 5 steps.

2. Elmbridge Villas. Follow lane ahead. Just past Vellmill Nature Reserve, TR for a few steps, cross stile (L), go through gapped fence and after 25m, TL over bridge.

Bear R over next f/b, go thro’ k-gate, ahead past marker post, stile, and under motorway. Go half L over f/b and maintain line up bank towards R edge of farm to marker post.

3. Callow Farm. TL along near side of fence, through gap, across stiles ahead either side of drive. Keep ahead through vast field on upper R edge all the way to the next motorway bridge.

At end of field, go right along hedged grassy farm drive to the country lane.

At Stream Cottage, TR to second house on left.

4. Garden Hut. Visit the hut for Dymock Poets information.

Carry on up lane to T-junction. (Gallows House is a few steps to R). TL for Ryton. At The Smithy, TR along PP1. Follow bridle path on edge of Ryton Firs for mile. At bottom of dip, reach junction.

5. Turn sharply back up bank to R. After 150m, cross stile into trees. Follow woodland edge for mile, over stile and through gate. With trees now up to L, and a path joining from L, TR through buildings of Ketford Farm. At far end, TL through modern gate, above ditch, down to reach bridle crosspath. TR, through gate to road. TL to cross Leadon at Ketford.

TR immediately along PP1 bridleway. Before Barn Farm, kink R and L to follow grassy bridleway. Go up bank through gate.

6. Ketford Bank Nature Reserve.

Keep ahead through gate over bank and follow straight path back over M50. Pass Crowfield Farm and Waverley to junction.

Go straight across, up steps, through gate. Keep left, cross stile (L), and go through gate across Dymock Cricket Ground.

Cross stile, as if for church, and curve round to L, through k-gate. Cross road to TR up pavement to start.