Inspiring young voices: young poets respond to English Heritage sites
Dr Abbi Flint reflects on the Inspiring Voices Poetry Competition.
On the evening of the 5th June 2026, three young poets performed their prize-winning poems live on stage; bringing to life heritage sites which spanned the fifth to twentieth centuries. This was a part of the launch event for the Past, Present, Future Weekender, hosted at the University of Oxford’s Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities: a new academic and cultural centre for the arts and humanities, open to all.
The reading was the latest event for the Poetry, Heritage and Community: Inspiring Voices project, a collaboration between the University of Oxford, the History of Science Museum, and English Heritage. As well as researching historical and contemporary poetry linked to English Heritage sites, the project also inspired and provided a platform for new and emerging voices to engage with heritage poetically. Alongside the workshops for young people (described in an earlier blog) at the heart of this was a competition which invited young people to write and submit a poem responding to an English Heritage site of their choice.
The competition received almost 170 entries, all reflecting the rich and creative ways that young people have engaged with heritage through poetry. A panel of judges had the difficult task of selecting winning poems, along with runner-up and highly commended entries, for three age groupings: representing the work of poets aged between 11-14 years, 15-17 years and 18-25 years.
‘Browjans’ takes its name from a Kernowek (Cornish) word meaning crumbs or small fragments. The fragments in the poem are evocative images of Tintagel Castle and its setting, giving space to both nature and culture: choughs and lichen included along with the castle’s walls and the legacy of tin-mining. I was struck by the original imagery in the poem, such as ‘the round sun, the colour of burnt bone’, and its tightly controlled structure. This was the winning poem for the 18-25 age category.
The poem which took first prize for the 15-17 category, was ‘Peveril’, which skilfully provides glimpses into the Norman history of Peveril Castle through poetry. The poem powerfully brings to life of the setting of the Castle - the ‘rinsed landscape’, ‘glassy brown strip fields’ and skies ‘clogged with clouds’ – before addressing the building itself: ‘in Herringbone masonry, and like a bone/ you stand.’ Eltham Palace was the focus of ‘Extension’, which took the prize for the 11-14 age group. This poem gives voice to the building itself; reflecting on the years of change it has experienced, its changing identity, and the people who have added their stories to its history ‘the hands that held me, the eyes that wander and wonder who I am’. The poem speaks eloquently to the multi-layered nature of heritage sites, and closes with the wonderful lines: ‘Every century adds a mirror/ and I wear them all.’
On the day of the reading at the Past, Present, Future Weekender, the young poets joined poet, playwright and artist Inua Ellams for a workshop, before performing their winning pieces as part of the evening launch event (engagingly hosted by Inua). Each of the prize-winners introduced their poem and the heritage site it was about before reading their work with confidence and passion. It was both moving and inspiring to hear the young people share their words in person, and testament to the power of poetry to foster creative connections with heritage.
With the poets’ permissions the words of prize-winning, runner-up, highly-commended and other young poets have been collated into an Inspiring Voices digital anthology. This collection features
poetry which engages with a whole host of English Heritage sites from Neolithic monuments, classic country houses, Abbey ruins, castles, and huge landscape features, such as Hadrian’s Wall.
Each poet has their own take on these sites, some draw on history and folklore, others imagine past (and future) voices – sometimes even the voice of the site itself. Some poems wrestle with hidden or difficult histories (such as the colonial legacies of some sites), others connect with personal experiences and emotions. Peppered throughout there are experimentations with form, playful rhymes and rhythms, original and evocative imagery, and rich multi-sensory detail.
I encourage you to access the competition anthology online and discover these new poetic voices for yourself!
Where to find out more
· Would you like to read the poems by the winners of the competition, and other poetic responses to English Heritage’s sites written by young people?
· Have you been inspired to write your own poetic response to a heritage site?
You can find the Inspiring Voices digital anthology, and resources to support you to develop your own creative poetic responses on English Heritage’s website.
