Saturday 5 October 2013

This Dew Stone at a disused gateway in Rivock Edge Forest is part of the invigorating Stanza Stones Poetry Trail from Marsden to Ilkley. The 47-mile trail is a collaboration between Ilkley Literature Festival and Marsden-born poet Simon Armitage. There are six stanza stones each carved by Pip Hall with an Armitage poem inspired by the language and landscape of the South Pennine watershed. The poems describe water in one of its many forms, hence a Snow Stone, a Beck Stone, a Puddle Stone, a Mist Stone, a Rain Stone and a Dew Stone. The Puddle Stone is near the Whetstone Gate wireless station on Rombalds Moor. The other stones are at Pule Hill, Marsden; Cow's Mouth Quarry, off the A58 Littleborough-Ripponden road; Nab Hill at Oxenhope; and at Beckstone Beck on Ilkley Moor. An excellent guide by landscape architect Tom Lonsdale detailing Poetry Trail walks can be downloaded at: www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk