Poets and Writers
Poets and Writers
Poets associated with Little Wittenham include Matthew Prior, John Masefield and the writer Agatha Christie.
Matthew Prior (1664-1721)
Prior was a noted poet, diplomat and politician, who lived for a time in Little Wittenham. While sitting under a local oak tree, around 1709, he is said to have written 'Henry and Emma', an epic poem about the love between Henry and his 'nut-brown maid`.
The local setting is invoked in the following lines:
'Where beauteous Isis and her husband Tame,
With mingl'd waves, for ever, flow the same,
In times of Yore an antient Baron liv'd,
Great Gifts bestow'd and great respect received'.
John Masefield (1878-1967)
Another poet associated with the area is John Masefield, a poet laureate who lived for his last several decades at the house 'Burcote Brook' (now a rest home) across the river in Burcot.
Masefield is best known for the poem 'I must go down to the sea again'. He wrote that the grounds of the house were 'a tangled woodland, with a rookery, willows where kingfishers flashed and thickets where nightingales nested.... We look out on the river and on Wittenham Clumps'. He wanted his ashes scattered beside the river, but they were instead placed in Poets Corner, Westminster Abbey.
Robert Gibbings
The writer and engraver Robert Gibbings (1889-1958) lived at Footbridge Cottage in Long Wittenham until his death. He wrote 'Sweet Thames Run Softly'.
Writers connected with the area
- Agatha Christie (1890-1976), buried in Cholsey churchyard.
- George Orwell (Eric Blair 1903-1950), buried at Sutton Courtenay.
- Jerome K. Jerome (said to have written his 'Three Men in a Boat' in the Barley Mow pub at Clifton Hampden ) is buried at Ewelme.
Pooh Sticks
There's a link with A.A.Milne and Winnie the Pooh with the annual 'International Pooh-Sticks Championship' is held at the footbridge at Day's Lock, Little Wittenham. It is sponsored by UKAEA Harwell and organised by the Sinodun Rotary Club. The 2005 winners were a Japanese ladies team.
