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| Site of the Belper Poetry Trail, © 2005-11 |
| The chronology of poems at Belper station is as follows: |
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| The Mayor of Belper and Hilary Fender unveil the very first poem. |
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| Katherine Birkin reading her poem "Night Train" at the unveiling. |
| ‘Night Train’ by Katherine Birkin was the first poem on platform 1. Katherine is a member of the Poetry People and wrote this poem after listening to the sounds of the trains echoing up the Derwent Valley. |
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| Thomas Hardy's ‘Faintheart in a Railway Station’. |
| Thomas Hardy 1840-1928, is better known perhaps for his novels, 'Far from the Madding Crowd, 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' etc. |
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| Rod Riesco with his poem ‘Announcement’. |
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| Close-up of Rod's poem. |
| Rod's poem comes from an anthology 'Marigolds Grow Wild on Platforms' (Cassell). Rod Riesco lives in Bolton and is a professional translator. He also runs a poetry website. |
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| Ray Woodland with his poem 'The Matlock Line'. |
| Ray Woodland was a local poet living in Ambergate just outside Belper. He was a well-known performance poet in the local poetry scene, belonging to a number of poetry groups. This poem is from his book ‘Ramifications’, a collection of poems about Derbyshire. |
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| Steve Cutmore's wife, Fran, and his best friend, Dave Gottshalk with 'Brief Encounters' |
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Steve Cutmore was born in London in 1955. He moved to Liverpool in
1990 working as a jazz musician and recording artist. He played tenor
and soprano saxophone and played alongside John Martyn and Snake Davis.
In 1993 he won the Merseyside Association of Writers’ Workshops prize
for his poem ‘Blood Brothers’. He produced one book of poetry ‘Colour
of Morning’, and a jazz CD ‘Picture House’ with guitarist John Whittington.
In 2003 he was diagnosed with cancer, but went on to record two more CDs
‘Something More to Say’ and ‘Bride to Be’ featuring his own songs with
himself on guitar. ‘Bride to Be’ was dedicated to his wife Fran, whom
he married in 2007. Steve was asked to write a poem for the station but died in March 2008, before he could complete it. His wife deciphered his notes and Glen Mulliner, a member of the trail steering group, was able to produce a poem from them. Only the title, 'Brief Encounters', and 2 lines are not directly attributable to Steve. |
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