The Ted Hughes Poetry Trail was opened in a blaze of glory at Stover Country Park on Thursday last week. The great and the good of Devon gathered to celebrate the renowned poet and enjoy the glories of Stover, described as 'a jewel in Devon's crown', in the spring. Chairman of Devon County Council, Cllr Des Shadrick, welcomed the numerous guests to Stover. He said Ted Hughes was 'a colossal presence in the literary landscape' and quoted Houseman and Shelley, as well as Hughes, saying they all gave readers a sense of wonder at creation that would last a lifetime. Edward Chorlton, Devon County Council's director of environment, economy and culture, explained the history of Stover, acquired by the council in 1979, when, he said, it had no facilities and a portaloo, 'which was the main feature of primary school visits'. He praised its development, mentioned its 26 breeding types of dragonflies and informed the assembled public that the children's poetry posts were illustrated by drawings by Raymond Briggs (author of The Snowman). Carol Hughes, widow of the poet, read her husband's Capturing Animals, a prose chapter from Poetry in the Making. In it, Hughes explained his early fascination with animals, and how, as a boy, he would snatch mice from sheaves at harvest time, until his pockets bulged with 30 to 40 of them. He came to realise that poems were a sort of animal, that they too had a separate life of their own. His first animal poem, The Thought Fox, could only exist because he had caught 'the real fox', and every time anyone reads the poem 'the fox will get up out of the darkness and come walking towards them'. Mrs Hughes unveiled the carved book that marks the start of the poetry trail outside the interpretation centre at Stover, and guests were offered a choice of guided tours; a short walk, 'suitable even for those in court shoes' or a longer walk through woodland. Stover basked in the sunshine, offering brimstone butterflies, the tantalising rapping of a woodpecker, newly-hatched ducklings and trees dressed in the fresh and different greens of their new leaves. It also offered the poetry trail, 16 smart hard wood pillars with black granite panels bearing a variety of Hughes' poems. They were selected by Mrs Hughes, Mr Chorlton and the stover rangers, and sited appropriately. 'The Iron Man prose extract was put near the pylons,' explained ranger Laura Whitehouse. 'To paint a Water Lily is near the lake, which is covered with water lilies.' There is also a separate children's poetry trail. The pillars, new bridges, the poetry chair and various carved animals were produced by Greenspace Designs, of Okehampton, by sculptor Mick Chamber and etcher and craftsman Tom Hills. Greenspace and the Stover Rangers were helped in their work by Mrs Hughes' gift of a Kubota tractor. 'It was a way of saying thank you to them,' she explained. 'They pulled their trailer by hand and used wheelbarrows before, but I though they needed help with transport.' Mrs Hughes first met her husband when she was a 17-year-old A-level student studying his poems. He knocked on the door of her parents' north Devon farmhouse to introduce himself one day after he had been fishing in a nearby pond. Hughes was 40. His first wife was poet Sylvia Plath, who died in 1963. 'Ted would have been very pleased by the Stover Poetry Trail,' said Mrs Hughes. 'He was so much a man of the countryside.'
