Years ago I walked from my home in Nelson over the moors road to Heptonstall and Mytholmroyd, and whilst I was drawing Burnley Road School (seen from the fields), a man approached and told me that the former Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes had once been a pupil.

He was there up til the age of 6 or 7.  Hughes was born at 1 Aspinall Street, in Mytholmroyd,  and was Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998.

When my daughter was at school in the 1970’s some of her friends took a residential course at the Arvon Foundation which was at Hughes’ home at Lumb Bank, West Yorkshire – it promotes writing education and runs residential writing courses. They were taught by Hughes there as well as Liverpool poet, Adrian Henri.