English Heritage launches poetry initiative

A pilot project to celebrate England’s everyday heritage through poetry has been launched by English Heritage.

The initiative, which English Heritage hopes will shape its ambition for a national project from 2026 to 2028, will see local poets visiting the charity’s historic sites to craft unique poems that explore everyday heritage.

In the pilot project – A Heritage Portrait of England – poets will visit three different English Heritage sites over the next three months. At each of the sites, the poets will explore, through conversation, what is important to people in their day-to-day lives.

Based on this conversation, the poets will craft unique poems, served up as a personal memento of their shared story and experience.

Ruth Haycock, interpretation curator at English Heritage, said “We want to connect people, communities and children in primary schools local to our sites, to explore everyday heritage and why it’s important to people today.”