Island 2000 Trust Blog

A quick update on IoW poets and the way they’re putting their words to some down-to-earth uses:

A few weeks ago Clea Barton of Oakfield, Ryde told us how she had got sick of encountering all the dog’s mess around the Oakfield Arc play area, so she wrote a poem about it and nailed it up on one of the fence posts along the fence. Her direct action seemed to have a real effect and a few days later the path was nearly clear.

We thought it would be interesting to test more scientifically Clea’s hypothesis that poetry can have an impact on dog poo, or at least the dogs owners’ willingness to clear it up, so we commissioned her to pick another fouled path in her area and monitor the effect over 12 days of putting up anti-poo poems (poo-ems as Clea calls them).

Below are the results - I think they’re quite remarkable.

As the perennial issue of fouled footpaths seems to dog almost every local council meeting, Clea’s research might be worth serious consideration where other measures have failed. More broadly, it’s interesting to note that poetry can be a good way of communicating even very mundane messages which people otherwise ignore.

Why would this be?

Dan and I at a secret location in the eastern Isle. We were surprised to discover trees with strange root patterns, twisted gnarled branches, and even faces! We were scouting out this jungle for caves and a possible finale to the Vectis poetry competition.

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Eve Jackson’s poem ‘Joy’ has now been put up at the Freshwater Bay bus stop. This was the overall winner of the bus stop poems competition and is the last in a series of ten to be cast in bronze and installed at stops round the Island.

It was a bit of a struggle and my attempts to lay nine bricks on top of the pillar to make it tall enough made it look like a scale model of the Tower of Pisa. Wonky as it is though, it’s now there and hopefully for a long time.

These three lucky people were the first to read it after installation, arriving as the quick-drying cement was still wet. I think the younger ones may not have understood much, but it seemed appropriate as the poem is all about children - and they did like feeling the raised text and drawings and were very patient as their mum read it out to them.

Here’s the poem for you to read for yourselves. The numbers at the top are thought not to be original.

Here’s the latest poem to be installed by a bus stop. Written by Margaret Prior, it is dedicated to the umbrella tree (a large weeping ash?) beside which buses pull up in East Cowes. This tree has marks the epicentre of communal life in the town and the poem recounts the activities that can be observed from its arbour.

It wasn’t easy to find a site where people could not slip, trip, bump into or fall headlong onto the bronze plaque, but thanks to the new owners of the Under The Umbrella Tree cafe, we were finally able to fit it up on a wall facing the tree and bus stop.

If you’d like to see it for yourself, hop on a bus number 4 or 5.

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Felicity Fair Thompson mounts a spirited defence of a beautiful,
rather lonely part of the island in her poem ‘Bleak Down’ which we have now set into the ground beside the bus stop Bleak Down Landfill Site. If you do catch the bus to this spot, you’ll have plenty of time to study and meditate on the beauty of both the poem and the view as only two buses pass here each day.
Hopefully it will provide a few moments’ rest and reflection for walkers making their way along the Worsley Trail too.

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Rumours of the giant of Chale re-emerged this weekend with the installation in the village green of Carolyn King’s poem A Chale Tale. Judging by the the size of the footprint left in the soft verge beside Chale Green Post Office bus stop, he must present a formidable sight to anyone unfortunate to cross his path. Locals are being advised to stay indoors. Chale resident Dave Badman said “It’s terrible - when I was a lad, you didn’t have to think twice about leaving your house. Now there seem to be trolls and giants round every corner.”

We would be glad to hear from anyone who has more information as to the giant’s whereabouts.

A bus stop named after a road or a building makes sense and isn’t very remarkable, but one named after a person is much more touching - specially when the person isn’t a national hero or grandee, but a local character. Generations of music students used to get off their bus here for their weekly piano lessons with Miss Black. Over the years, her reputation and musical influence made her a much-loved part of local culture and she is still talked about today by her former students.

Another tribute to Miss Black has now been paid by Sylvia Bartram in the form of a poem. It was one of ten winners of the competition to write poems about the Island’s bus stops and although the stop has now been moved about a hundred yards down the hill, this seems like the right place for it. The poem has been cast in bronze and, thanks to the present owners of Miss Black’s house, set into the garden wall.

If you want to take a look for yourself, the Number 10’s your bus!

Jack Segal’s poem Mill Hill Station is now in position in a rather crumbly old wall belonging to the Spiritualist Church in Cowes. It reminds passers by of the trains which used to pass by that spot, disappearing in a cloud of steam into the tunnel which can still be seen.
If you’d like to see some photographs of how Mill Hill Station used to be, take a look at
http://www.semg.org.uk/location/iow/millhill_01.html
Though the train doesn’t stop there any longer, the No. 1 bus does!

It’s much more difficult than I imagined to get even one layer of bricks flat. All I needed here was a small, fairly level plinth which would support a plaque with a poem on it. But after struggling for some hours with a sack of recycled bricks and a bucket of rapidly setting cement, it looked like the whole thing might congeal into something similar to the Tricorn Centre. Fortunately, Martin’s children, Rebekah and Jonathan arrived just in time to straighten things out before they finally set hard. (It seems they do this kind of thing all the time in their home education group).

Anyway the latest poem in the Bus Stop Poem series is now in position. It is entitled Simeon Monument and was written by Pat Murgatroyd. Hop on a 6, 7, 38 or the Medina Tour and see it in the flesh!

Installed at last - Edward Lyon’s poem ‘Oasis’ on top of a big piece of stone. It looks like it’s been there for years doesn’t it? If you want to take a look for yourself, it’s by the bus stop outside the Oasis shop on Carpenters Lane (near St Helens).