As part of Rowntree Park’s centenary year celebrations in 2021, we relaunched ‘Words from a bench’
‘Words From A Bench’ is a project we started in 2013 and it ran for a few years before a few more years break. relaunched in 2021 with the aim of encouraging reflections, recollections and creative imaginings of Rowntree Park, along the themes of ‘escape’, ‘the outdoors’, ‘nature’ and ‘the park’. Two sets of poems and stories were displayed in the Park from April to November 2021 and you could access them via QR codes. You can read them using the links below.
Within the collection you’ll find moments of laughter, poignancy and occasional ‘naughty’ behaviour, which we do not encourage! Aside from occasional light editing for clarity, all submissions are the author’s original work and voice. We hope you enjoy reading them.
All stories and poems can also be accessed using the links below.
Set 2 Displayed July until September 2021:
Ordinary Socks – Adela Parzanese
Thank you, Dear Rowntree, for your lovely park – Mieke Jackson
Memories from a local lad – Tony Huntington
The Amazon Song – Kate Newton (age 13)
Pedal Down – Natalie Roe
Sun Blazes In The Sky – Oscar Watson (age 6)
If We Stare Long Enough – Caroline Cox
The Park – Mary Baker
A Park Bench Love Story – Gavin Lewis
Rowntree Park Is Very Big – Summer Langhorn (age 13)
A Sestina for the Trees – Elizabeth Stanforth-Sharpe
A Walk Through Rowntree’s – Lucas Cowley (age 8)
The Last Hotel – Jonathan Brown
I Wake Up on August 9th – Imogen Brewer (age 12)
The squirrels, the boy and the bread – Susana Cortes
Corvus Girl – Kathleen Swan
The Painted Lady Dances – Rebecca Sutcliffe (age 12)
Rowntree Park Lake – Bill Beaumont
Snow – Logan Pawley (age 7)
Our Bench – Duncan Bartlett
Through autumn, summer, winter and spring – Kate Brown
Set 1 displayed April to July 2021
I can’t wait till it’s over – Angela Peacock
And on that day when – Katy Jenkins
The snow fox – Charlotte Hudson
Weeds – Sally Mitchum
Fox in the Park -Nate Reason
Ain’t Nature Grand? – Joy Myerscough
Sparrows drink from morning dew – Jet Liversedge
Rowntree Park – John Ostyn
As the white flakes of snow – Edward Shakeshaft
Bubbles – Dinks
I went for a walk in Rowntree Park– Ian Durham
There’s a light – Estelle Villas
To tennis at Rowntree Park – Rosie Cantrell
Thoughts flow – Abby Levers
Springtime Forest – LuLu Morris
A good view – Jeanette Sparnenn
Ducks – Max Stampfer-Todd
On Beauty, War, Remembrance and… Geese – Dave Rowsell
The Nature of Rowntree Park – Alisha Langhorn
The park is closed today – Daniela Nunnari
Clifton Green Primary School – 6G
Clifton Green Primary School – 6PM
Thank you to our volunteer editors; Karen Hill Green, Gayle Johnson and Nicky Kippax. Also huge thanks to all who contributed a story or poem to this project.
