This year marks the 100th anniversary of a visit to the Staffordshire Moorlands by the poet, W H Auden. As a young man of 18, he visited the Caldon Canal and wrote this little-known poem called "The Canal, Froghall".
Froghall itself, in 1925, would have been a hive of activity, although it was in the last few years of the Uttoxeter Canal basin and lock still being in operation with boats being loaded with limestone brought down on the tramways from Caldon Low.
Auden must have explored along the more rural length of canal towards Consall, as the poem conjours up vivid images of a horse boat travelling through the peaceful valley. We hope you enjoy reading it.
The Canal, Froghall
There runs no road except the towpath through the valley
And oaks hang over it to make a dark green alley
Quite covering the weedy sunk canal it follows
Winding in and out among the hill-ribs and hollows.
Beneath the water trees hang downward in their stations
Glassed in a calm which might have been for generations,
And save for some few sleepy birds no note is spoken
The silence and the watercalm are both unbroken.
Until a barge with coal and iron ore laden passes
The swaying towrope swishing gently through the grasses.
At once tree images jostle and soon have vanished
The silences and solitudes are quickly banished.
Because of one tired horse with jingling harness stalking
Slow, patient forward, one old man beside it walking,
And puffing at a blackened clay, or sometimes humming
All unawares of what is scattered by their coming.
They go their way and ripples are the only traces
Until the calm returns which everything effaces
And images of trees resume their standing places.
W.H. Auden, Summer 1925