Auden Tour - transport and industrial heritage

W. H. Auden is a widely studied poet of international renown. Yet at least one seminal piece is little known. It was his personal tribute to (using his own phrase quoted elsewhere) the Pennine Mutterland that lies behind so much of what he wrote. The piece took the form of an itinerary for a six day tour of Britain from London to Edinburgh which spent most of its time somewhere between Keighley and the Scottish Border in the comparatively little known (at least in 1954) Pennine Dales. In recent years the connection has become better known. The itinerary which was printed in American Vogue for the 15th May 1954 was printed in Britain for the first time in 1999 in W.H. Auden: Pennine Poet.

May 2004 marked the 50th anniversary of the itinerary's publication. How better to mark this than for a group to travel its route? This re-creation will not take place for the anniversary but I leave these notes as guidance for anyone contemplating the idea in the future.

This enables travelers to fly into London Heathrow on Saturday and stay in an airport hotel. The group assembles ready to start from the London Heathrow area after breakfast on the Sunday. The route is via Oxford, Auden's College (visit - lunch/afternoon tea?) to Ashby De La Zouch, the Auden hotel - The Royal Hotel - is still in business

Leave Ashby for nearby Ticknall (Juvenilia, The Chase) thence Repton, Burton (all family associations and close by) to Castleton for a cavern visit, thence to a hotel near Appletreewick likely to be the Devonshire Arms at Bolton Abbey.

Via Wharfedale to Keld (Streams / Prologue at Sixty); as Auden says this is short. A stop at Hawes for a cheese is very likely, over the Buttertubs Pass to Keld for a waterfalls walk. Thence to Tan Hill Inn/Mariner's Arms. The travelers should probably overnight in Appleby (not Keld or Dufton, unless a very small group).

Keld to Dufton, since we would be in Appleby, I would suggest that a second night is spent in Appleby and that the day comprises two choices: for the fit, vehicle to Dufton, thence walk to High Cup Nick and back Alternative option is a day at leisure in Appleby with its castle, gentle walks, option to travel on Settle/Carlisle scenic railway

Dufton to Blanchland (actually from Appleby (four miles away)). The travelers will drive this warren of lanes, thence up Hartside Summit on the Penrith-Alston road, the land of New Year Letter's Fault, The Dog Beneath the Skin and onto Alston Moor. The route, even in a coach, can be followed exactly, as this is his heartland, the twin centres celebrated in The Watershed and Paid on Both Sides.The route passes Allenheads (below left) where he stayed in September 1926.

The destination is named by Auden as the The Lord Crewe Arms where he stayed at Easter 1930. We have to accept that days could be spent on this day and that much will be seen from the window and not on foot. An option to enable a return to Nenthead (his Stunhead) and the mines and a walk around Rookhope is detailed later. Because of his route into Blanchland there is an easy half mile moorland walk to the shafts of New Year Letter and Rookhope (Weardale Summer 1922) - at least where I believe this epiphany happened - the Sikehead Shafts on Bolt's Law.

Blanchland to Edinburgh. It should be practical to stop to visit Hexham Abbey and then Housesteads Fort on Hadrian's Wall, thence the A68/Dere Street Roman Road drive toEdinburgh. Arrive at Edinburgh therefore on a Friday night.

I now suggest an option, those who can only spare a week, can fly back from Edinburgh Turnhouse or Glasgow on the Saturday or Sunday, those who can afford more time can stay turn about and return to London Heathrow.

The opportunity of a Saturday excursion from Edinburgh to Helensburgh to see The Larches school at which Auden taught and other Auden names around the Clyde including the shipyards and the torpedo works in The Orators. That night same hotel in Edinburgh.

Starts in Edinburgh, the airport party are dropped off, the remainder are now going south not via the England: Six Unexpected Days route, instead this is an alternative drive via the M74 and Beattock Summit ( where the road parallels The Night Mail railway) past Carlisle to Penrith Station (Mountains), thence to Keswick for the night. Incorporating a visit to the Auden holiday home at Wescoe and the nearby Threlkeld Quarry (Lead's the Best)

From Keswick to York for an Auden birthplace visit, the house is accessible and is illustrated above (right). This is a drive from the Lakes, over the Eden Valley and then across the Pennines along the A66. It is intended to leave the members with plenty of time to explore York at leisure: with its Minster and Roman/Viking/Railway heritage. Could the tour extend ten miles east of York to Garrowby Hill for the view described in Age of Anxiety in the Seager's Folly stanza?

From York to Birmingham via Sheffield/Chatsworth (for a visit?) as in England: Six Unexpected Days (both are named). At Birmingham stay centrally, go to see the plaque in Harborne where the home was (likewise for Solihull?), see Gas Street Canal Basin as I believe Vespers describes.

Birmingham to the Malvern Hills and The Downs School at Colwall (visit), thence to London Heathrow and leave (a Wednesday evening).

For some who will want a full fortnight my suggestion would be that a third option covers the Thursday-Sunday of the second week and it splits into two: members opt to stay on in London independently or on Thursday morning, drive back via the M1/M6 to the North Pennines (drivers would be needed and hire cars) to spend Friday/Saturday on an intensive exploration of Alston Moor/Rookhope during which Cauldron Snout, Garrigill, Nenthead Mines for an underground visit (picture below) would be targeted.

You would stay in Alston on Thursday/Friday/Saturday night and leave Alston via Hartside on Sunday morning to get onto the M6 at Penrith and head off to Manchester/London Airports.

That would be an intense fortnight but it would cover both England: Six Unexpected Days as authentically as a group could, and add on some other key Auden sites like Clydeside, The Night Mail route, the Lake District holiday home, York, Birmingham, The Downs School. The interplay of the Lakes and the North Pennines would become writ clear in this itinerary. A main area ignored is the Norfolk of Gresham's School, but although I know the area well, I feel to add this in really would be zanging about the UK beyond comfort.

Our bibliography details articles and media presentations concerning Auden. This includes details of Alan Godfrey Map reprints for which we have provided introductions covering Auden's Pennine interests of Alston Moor, Allendale and North Tynedale.

Prospective travellers may wish to prepare with some reading. Relevant Auden's volumes include Juvenilia Poems 1922-28, The English Auden, Collected Poems, A Certain World, The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Plays. You could study Humphrey Carpenter's biography W. H. Auden in which the Pennine interest does appear, Richard Hoggart's W. H. Auden A Selection, Edward Callan's Auden: A Carnival of Intellect (which discusses Pennine themes) and our own W.H. Auden: Pennine Poet.

The Geology of the Northern Pennine Orefield Volume 1 & 2 by Sir Kingsley Dunham

Nenthead Peak District Mines Historical Society and Kent Underground Research Group reports

Backtrack magazine history of the Weatherhill and Rookhope Railway August and September 1996

England: Six Unexpected Days by W. H. Auden: Originally published in American Vogue. Notes to re-create his tour suggested by Robert Forsythe.

England: Six Unexpected Days by W. H. Auden: Originally published in American Vogue.
Notes to re-create his tour suggested by Robert Forsythe.