Polesworth Poets Trail
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    • Gods Dance Within Us
    • Osanna
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    • Squab
    • Song 13 (Drayton Dub)
    • Listen...
    • The River Anker
    • Famous Men
    • Power
    • Memories of Pooley Mine
    • Phase Two >
      • Along The Canal
      • Collaborative Poem
      • Pooley Country Park - Mining
      • Pooley Country Park - Environment and Nature
  • The Poets
    • Garrie Fletcher
    • Penny Harper
    • Sarah Armstrong
    • Mal Dewhirst
    • Jonathan Morley
    • Gill Learner
    • Jane Holland
    • Helen Yendall
    • Janine Warre
    • Raymond Hendy
    • Phase Two >
      • Peter Grey
      • Gary Longden
      • Sarah James
      • Dea Costelloe
      • Barry Patterson
      • Gina Coates
      • Margaret Torr
      • Bernadette O'Dwyer
      • Barry Hunt
      • Marjorie Neilson
      • Janet Smith
      • Gary Carr
      • Janis Kind
      • Terri Jolland
      • Hench-4
      • Jacqui Rowe
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    • The Original Polesworth Poets
  • Get In Touch
  • Links
    • Polesworth Parish Council
    • Polesworth Abbey
    • Pooley Country Park
  • Home
  • The Poems
    • Gods Dance Within Us
    • Osanna
    • The Polesworth Pact
    • Squab
    • Song 13 (Drayton Dub)
    • Listen...
    • The River Anker
    • Famous Men
    • Power
    • Memories of Pooley Mine
    • Phase Two >
      • Along The Canal
      • Collaborative Poem
      • Pooley Country Park - Mining
      • Pooley Country Park - Environment and Nature
  • The Poets
    • Garrie Fletcher
    • Penny Harper
    • Sarah Armstrong
    • Mal Dewhirst
    • Jonathan Morley
    • Gill Learner
    • Jane Holland
    • Helen Yendall
    • Janine Warre
    • Raymond Hendy
    • Phase Two >
      • Peter Grey
      • Gary Longden
      • Sarah James
      • Dea Costelloe
      • Barry Patterson
      • Gina Coates
      • Margaret Torr
      • Bernadette O'Dwyer
      • Barry Hunt
      • Marjorie Neilson
      • Janet Smith
      • Gary Carr
      • Janis Kind
      • Terri Jolland
      • Hench-4
      • Jacqui Rowe
  • The Trail
  • News
  • About
    • The Poetry Trail
    • The Project
    • Phase Two
    • The Original Polesworth Poets
  • Get In Touch
  • Links
    • Polesworth Parish Council
    • Polesworth Abbey
    • Pooley Country Park

About the Original Polesworth Poets

POLESWORTH MANOR - A Very Brief History
​Polesworth is not named in Domesday Book, but, in the time of King Stephen, Robert Marmion and his wife Millicent gave all their land there to the abbess and convent of Polesworth. In 1242 the nuns were granted a weekly market on Thursdays and a yearly fair from 19 to 21 July.

Following the suppression of the nunnery 1536. the site of the house, with the lordship or manor or town of POLESWORTH, was sold by the Crown to Francis Goodere in 1545.  He died in December 1546, followed by his wife Ursula the following month, leaving a son Henry, then aged 13.

In 1574 Henry Goodere and his wife Frances settled the manor on themselves and their heirs. Sir Henry started the Polesworth Circle, the largest literary gathering outside of London at the time. The circle included poets and writers, John Donne, Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton and architect Inigo Jones.

Sir Henry died in March 1595 with the manor passing to his nephew Sir Henry Jnr who continued to support the Polesworth circle.

Further reading: Polesworth Parish - British History Online
Sir Henry Goodere Snr (1534 - 1595) & Sir Henry Goodere Jnr (1571 - 1627)
Monochrome line drawing of the Goodere Coat of Arms
Goodere Coat of Arms
As noted above, Sir Henry Goodere founded The Polesworth Circle which was a private organisation whose literary members were all very significant and considerably notable.

After his death, The Circle was continued by his nephew Sir Henry Goodere Jnr.

Further reading: Sir Henry Goodere (1534-95) - The History of Parliament & Sir Henry Goodyer (1571 - 1627) - The History of Parliament
MICHAEL DRAYTON (1563 - 1631)
Painting of Michael Drayton - unknown source
Michael Drayton
Michael Drayton was born in Hartshill, North Warwickshire. He found service with the Goodere family in Polesworth from whom he received an education in the school room above the former nunnery gateway at Polesworth Abbey.

Drayton became a member of The Polesworth Circle and mixed with  the literary greats at the time, including William Shakespeare, whom he knew from their associations in London.

It has been suggested that Shakespeare may have also been part of the Polesworth Circle and although no documentary evidence exists to corroborate this, it was explored in the book A Chapter in the Early Life of Shakespeare, written by Arthur Gray in 1926.

Drayton’s works includes his Sonnet sequence, Ideas Mirror and Poly-Olbion, a chorographical description of all the tracts, rivers, mountains, forests of the Isle of Great Britain.

Further reading: Michael Drayton - Poetry Foundation
John Donne (1572 - 1631)
Painting of John Donne - unknown source
John Donne
John Donne was a poet and Church of England cleric who was one of the pre-eminent Metaphysical poets. His poems, sonnets, songs, epitaphs and sermons explore the themes of love and religion using a vibrant language and inventive metaphor.

Donne's poem Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward was written at Polesworth and was commemorated in John Donne day in 2013, when the poets Gregory Leadbetter, Jane Commane, Jacqui Rowe and Mal Dewhirst were commissioned to write a response to Donne’s poem.

Further reading: John Donne - Poetry Foundation
Ben Johnson (1572 - 1637)
Monochrome image of Ben Johnson - unknown source
Ben Johnson
Ben Jonson was a classically educated playwright, poet, actor and literary critic whose work has left a lasting impact on English poetry and stage comedy. He is recognised as the second most influential playwright (after Shakespeare) in his day.

His key works include: Everyman and his Humour (1598), Volpone or The Fox (1606), The Alchemist (1610) and Bartholomew Fair (1614).

​Further reading: Ben Johnson - Wikipedia

Inigo Jones (1573 - 1652)
Portrait of Inigo Jones - unknown source
Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones was an English architect who was the first person to introduce the classical architecture of Rome and the renaissance into Britain.

Further reading: Inigo Jones - Wikipedia

Other Notable Writers And Links To North Warwickshire
Raphael Holinshed (1529 – 1580) was a chronicler of English history whose work was used by William Shakespeare as the major source of his history plays. Holinshed was a steward at the home of Thomas Burdet of Bramcote Hall, two miles from Polesworth.

Philemon Holland (1552 – 1637) was a school master, physician and translator who lived and worked on Coventry. His translation of William Camden’s Britannia from the original Latin in to English was used to provide the structure of Michael Drayton’s Poly-Olbion. Jonathan Morley refers to this in his poetry trail poem Song 13 (Drayton Dub).

Sir Aston Cockayne (1608 – 1684) was a Poet and Writer whose home was Pooley Hall in Polesworth.

Further reading: (Wikipedia) Raphael Holinshed, Philemon Holland, Sir Aston Cockayne
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This website is managed by Polesworth Parish Council

Address:
The Clerk, The Tithe Barn, Hall Court, Bridge Street, Polesworth, B78 1DT

Telephone:
01827 892320