Hooray for William !

Cherry

By GlosKat

Sun, 18 Oct 2026
  • 116 reads
6 comments
 

Long before we had our hoodies

Nicking lead from off the roof

Someone else got there before them

Pevsner's Guides will give you proof.

 

Gilbert Scott found Tewkesbury Abbey

Needed to keep out the rain

Scrubbed five hundred year old paintings

Off the pillars as too plain.

 

Grimthorpe didn't like St Alban's

Perpendicular west side

Pulled it down and put his own up,

Monument to his own pride.

 

Norman, Saxon, Medieval

Swept away across the land

Victorians' smug  'we know best here'

Almost no-one made a stand.

 

Except ..

 

William Morris got so angry

Wrote a letter to The Times

Started an association

Trying to prevent these crimes.

Certificate U
Poem
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by GlosKat on

Generally I'm not a big fan of William Morris and his champagne socialist Arts and Crafts maties, but I'm with him all the way with this. 

(He actually wrote his letter to The Athenæum not The Times, but that didn't rhyme smiley)

 

Submitted by GlosKat on

Thank you for the cherries !

I had a lot of fun doing the research for this.  I could have put in lots more verses but I didn't want to bore people.  I'm sure you get the point.

If anybody is interested in reading more on this interesting subject here are a couple of links to articles I used :  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_the_Protection_of_Ancient_Buildings

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_restoration

 

Submitted by Turlough on

I had to do a fair bit of rooting about on Google to get my head all the way round this but I get your point. I read that the boy Morris ‘rejected mass-produced industrial goods in favour of traditional handcraftsmanship’ so he’s alright by me.

I like a poem that makes me look and learn.

Nice one Kat!

Turlough

Submitted by GlosKat on

Thank you !

I did a lot of reading before writing the poem.  I already knew that the Victorians had 'restored' large numbers of churches, but I didn't know much about the background before.

Morris's Arts and Crafts maties, most of whom were from privileged backgrounds, had a rather idealised agenda when making their handcrafted furniture. It took so many hours to make, that only rich people could afford to buy it.  So not quite back to basics.  

 

 

Submitted by Turlough on

I suppose restoring old churches was better than letting them become derelict. I’m still trying to decide if JD Wetherspoon’s approach to pubs in the 21st century has been a good idea. And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Ryanair were to start tarting up Sopwith Camels for the sake of nostalgia and/or saving a bit of money.

It's very rare that anyone ever does owt for nowt.

Turlough

Submitted by GlosKat on

I'm not sure RyanAir customers would notice the difference.  Except you wouldn't have to pay extra to sit next to a window.