Discovering Ted Hughes’s Yorkshire
Discovering Ted Hughes’s Yorkshire is a series of six route maps that allow walkers to encounter the Yorkshire landscapes – Mytholmroyd & the upper Calder valley, Mexborough and the lower valleys of the Don & Dearne, and Patrington in East Yorkshire – that formed and inspired the poet.
Edward James Hughes was born at 1 Aspinall Street, Mytholmroyd, in Yorkshire’s West Riding, on 17th August, 1930, the third child of William Hughes, a joiner, and Edith Hughes, a part-time textile machinist. Along with his brother Gerald and sister Olwyn, young Ted experienced an idyllic upbringing on the Banksfield Estate, playing Cowboys and Indians in nearby Redacre Wood, fishing for loach in the Rochdale Canal and camping out in the surrounding countryside.
On 13th August 1938, Hughes moved with his family to Mexborough, in the southern West Riding, about 40 miles from Mytholmroyd, where his parents ran a newsagent’s shop. In Mexborough, Hughes developed his interest in animals and fishing and attended Mexborough Grammar School, where he wrote his first poems and resolved to become a poet. In December 1949 he won an Open Exhibition to study English Literature at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
However, before going up to Cambridge, Hughes decided to complete his National Service in the R.A.F. After undertaking basic training at West Kirby in the Wirral between October-January 1949-50, Hughes was posted to Sutton-on-Hull and finally to Patrington in Yorkshire’s East Riding, where he worked as Ground Wireless Mechanic until he was demobbed in October, 1951, in which month he finally ‘went up’ to University.
By the time he entered Pembroke College, Hughes’s was already well on the way to being formed as the poet of his subsequent fame, and his three Yorkshire centres were key to his formation.
Maps
Map One: Mytholmroyd
Circular walk around Mytholmroyd via Hughes’s birthplace, Redacre Wood, Churn Milk Joan, and sites from poems like 'Sunstruck' and 'Sacrifice'.
Map Two: Crimsworth Dean
A scenic loop from Midgehole to Lumb Falls via Crimsworth Dean, passing the spot where Hughes dreamt the vision behind his poetry.
Map Three: Heptonstall/Colden Clough
From Hebden Bridge station to Heptonstall via Colden Road and Lumb Bank, returning via Hell Hole and Granny Wood. Sites from key poems featured.
Map Four: Mexborough
Walk through Mexborough and Old Denaby via Hughes’s home, school, and canal. Includes sites from ‘Her Husband’, 'The Bull Moses' and more.
Map Five: Barnburgh, Crookhill & Roche Abbey
Three short South Yorkshire walks needing car or bus links. Sites include key locations from 'Esther's Tomcat', 'Pike' and more.
Map Six: Patrington
A circular walk from Patrington to the Humber foreshore and Sunk Island, exploring R.A.F. sites tied to ‘Mayday on Holderness’ and more.