PoetryKenneth WebbGreat Norwood Street, devil's chimney, Leckhampton Hill, high Cotswolds, Roman Britain, Norwood Arms, Ermin Street, a terraced row of cometing facades

Great Norwood Street

PoetryKenneth WebbGreat Norwood Street, devil's chimney, Leckhampton Hill, high Cotswolds, Roman Britain, Norwood Arms, Ermin Street, a terraced row of cometing facades
Great Norwood Street

POETRY

Great Norwood Street, Tivoli, Leckhampton


A terraced row of competing facades
Magnolia, Pink, Magnolia
Grey, Blue
Great Norwood Street

Trees my Frame,
Leckhampton Hill
my backdrop,
Just below Devil's Chimney.

Leaning slightly to my right
and people-watching,

This terrace heralds
graceful architecture
St Philip and St James
in Grafton Road,
betowered.

Leckhampton stands proud.
Its own town.

Its own high street in the 'old' Bath Road,
a stone's throw from
elegant tree-lined
Cheltenham,
a part of which it has now become.


Proud, very proud,
of its steep ascent
from Norwood Arms
o’er Leckhampton Hill
Past the battlement house
of “head found severed” fame
below the Devil’s Chimney
Onto the high Cotswolds,
Thence back in time
to Roman Britain,
along Ermin Street
to Cirencester…
And beyond … …


Back in the day
twas many a bod
convinced that the precarious rock
was indeed his “dark satanic mill”.


19 January 2024
All Rights Reserved


LIVERPOOL

© 2024 Kenneth Thomas Webb

All Digital Artwork by KTW

The main image is the first draft, hurriedly scribbled while enjoying a brief coffee.


First written on 5 June 2017 and revised in 2021 and 2024


I took this image as it’s a reminder that we need not feel we are unable to write simply because we don’t have our iPhone or tablet with us. With thanks to Tea at Ten 10 Great Norwood Street, penned while enjoying a most welcome cafetière of the finest coffee on a very pleasant Wednesday.

Great Norwood Street Tivoli Leckhampton ~ In the Mind’s Eye

Architecture, wherever we are, signifies how we have developed and how we currently stand, and even hinting at how we might be progressing or regressing as a community. I played around with thoughts of the town I grew up in, in the mind’s eye. These eight illustrations accurately capture those fleeting glimpses.


Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.

He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.

Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.

In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.

The Four Seasons, PoetryKenneth WebbLytham, Blackpool, sea defences, Morecombe, North Shore Pier, victorian tearooms, stilts, Seniors of Lytham, TFS C9Comment

The Four Seasons Chapter Nine ~ Spring's Exuberance

Like 2021, January and February 2010 were very cold months, with snow covering much of the country from John o’ Groats to Land’s End. Having taken several tumbles on ice, one especially vicious with the back of my head being the first to hit the pavement and my brief case spewing out its confidential client files, I was very relieved when Spring arrived. Indeed, my exuberance was not an exaggeration!

The Four Seasons, PoetryKenneth WebbLytham, Blackpool, sea defences, Morecombe, North Shore Pier, victorian tearooms, stilts, Seniors of Lytham, TFS C9Comment
The Four Seasons Chapter Nine ~ Spring's Exuberance
A Thousand Dimensions, PoetryKenneth Webbphysics, spoken into existence, Millennia and Billennia, citizen of heaven, Rosetta, Comet 67P, D 25, Fables, eternal damnation, theory of evolution, Fables Composed August 6, 2014 and written in my author name Ian Bradley Marshall

Fables

Written without intent, waking suddenly at 6 am on 6 August 2014. Having penned it, I turned over at 6.25 am and had another hour. Later, the first reports on the news that Europe’s first spacecraft Rosetta is entering a triangular orbit around Comet 67P after “a ten-year chase”. 

I write this because my patience is tried when I’m asked to abandon all logic and to accept that the entire Universe is only eight thousand years old. I’ll turn over again!

A Thousand Dimensions, PoetryKenneth Webbphysics, spoken into existence, Millennia and Billennia, citizen of heaven, Rosetta, Comet 67P, D 25, Fables, eternal damnation, theory of evolution, Fables Composed August 6, 2014 and written in my author name Ian Bradley Marshall
Fables
PoetryKenneth WebbBlackpool Tower, Parisian Room, North Pier, Mr Gillier, Pittville Circus, PO 6, The Longhand LetterComment

The Longhand Letter ~ Second Edition (2024)

This postbox has been here for more than a century. It is on the Prestbury Road just beyond Pittville Circus roundabout if heading into town. Havanas Coffee House is where Mr Gillier the Grocer supplied provisions to 20 and 25 Windsor Street a hundred meters the other side of the circus; the letter box to which I’d post letters for Grandma …

PoetryKenneth WebbBlackpool Tower, Parisian Room, North Pier, Mr Gillier, Pittville Circus, PO 6, The Longhand LetterComment
The Longhand Letter ~ Second Edition (2024)
Poetry, Armed ForcesKenneth WebbHelmand Province, Sangin, RAF Lyneham, Lime Street Station, Joyce of Whitchurch

Joyce of Whitchurch | Platform 7 17:47 Liverpool Lime Street

Joyce’s hand inches inexorably to departure
the curious soothing hum of rocket engines lying horizontal
a heartbeat of anticipation, new lives, a new world departing, an old world closing.

Poetry, Armed ForcesKenneth WebbHelmand Province, Sangin, RAF Lyneham, Lime Street Station, Joyce of Whitchurch
Joyce of Whitchurch | Platform 7 17:47 Liverpool Lime Street