A POET who spent much of her life in Colwall and Ledbury has been named as one of the 100 Great Black Britons.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning is regarded as one of Britain's best female poets.

Born in 1806 in Durham, she was the first of her family born in England for over 200 years. For centuries, the part-Creole Barrett family lived in Jamaica, where they owned sugar plantations.

Elizabeth's father, Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett, chose to raise his family in England while his fortune grew in Jamaica.

Although plagued by ill health throughout her adult life, Eliza-beth wrote poetry from the age of 12 and gained notoriety for her work by the 1830s. She married poet Robert Browning in 1846.