WALKING GLOUCESTERSHIRE with IVOR GURNEY

Eleanor Rawling gave this year’s John Simpson Memorial lecture last Tuesday. Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) was a local poet, born in Gloucester, was gassed in the first world war and suffered long afterwards spending much time in mental asylums. Despite this he never lost his love of the Gloucestershire landscape and, while he was also extremely musically gifted, the lecture concentrated on the landscapes that inspired his poetry: the walks he took along the streets of old Gloucester, the river banks and meadowlands of the Severn, and the high hills and scarp edges of the Cotswolds.

The talk was sprinkled with selections from his varied poems, accompanied by identifiable locations and specific descriptions but also references to his feelings and emotional attachment to beautiful meaningful places. The slide below, taken from the presentation, here emphasises the significance of his memory that “could reproduce the scene but not the performance…”

Walking Gloucestershire with Ivor Gurney – poetry & landscape explored through 20 circular walks by Eleanor Rawling published 2024 by Logaston Press

Ivor Gurney’s Gloucestershire – exploring poetry and place by Eleanor Rawling published 2011 by the History Press