Ted Hughes Birth Place

The late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes was born in Mytholmroyd, near Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The Elmet Trust, named after Hughes' work The Remains of Elmet (Elmet being the name of the ancient kingdom that once spanned this part of the Pennines), is a relatively new literary society dedicated to preserving the poet's work in the context of his formative landscape.

The Elmet Trust have secured the patronage of fellow Pennine poet Simon Armitage and this weekend Armitage opened 1, Aspinall Street, Mytholmroyd, Hughes' former home. The house, which is a small traditional Yorkshire stone terrace, will be let as a retreat for writers and as an occasional holiday home, in turn a useful means of raising funds for the trust. The house will be open to the public during the Hughes festival in October this year. For a new festival the Trust have gathered an impressive number of literary figures including present Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, Hughes and Plath's daughter Freida who is a poet in her own right, Anne Stevenson the poet and Plath biographer, and Keith Sagar who is Hughes' bibliographer. Events planned include poetry readings and literary talks, guided walks of the landscape, a play based on Hughes' work, a children's opera based on the Iron Man and more.