House, Gardens & Cafe Open Tuesday - Sunday 10.30 - 17.00

Gilbert White Poetry Workshop

To commemorate the 300th anniversary of Gilbert White’s birth, Kathryn Bevis (Hampshire Poet Laureate, 2020) will be leading a nature walking and poetry-writing workshop, setting off from Gilbert White’s House, Selborne.
Whether you’re an experienced poet or a beginner keen to explore the wonderful practice of writing poems in response to the living world around you, you’ll find the prompts and plenty of sensory stimulus to gather material for a poem, as well as tuition and guidance in how to craft the poem itself.  Come prepared to play!
 
Kathryn Bevis is a poet and educator who grew up in Hampshire.  She is founder and director of The Writing School, Winchester, teaching creative writing to adults. Kathryn also hosts a Poetry for Wellbeing project for service users of the mental health charity Mind across Hampshire, funded by Arts Council England. Her poems have been published and anthologised in print and online and have also won several recent awards.

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    Gilbert Whites House

    Gilbert White was aged 7 or 8 when the White family moved from the Vicarage on Selborne’s Plestor, to this house, called ‘The Wakes’ (named after the Wake family who had lived here previously). At that time the property would have been no more than a ‘two up, two down’  but over the subsequent years lots of extensions and additions have been made, creating the long sizeable house you see today.

    The rooms have been restored following descriptions in White’s own correspondence and include a chair he used at Oriel College, Oxford (loaned from the College), items of contemporary furniture, family portraits and bed hangings embroidered for him by his aunts.

    On display is the original manuscript of his book, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, which was purchased with generous help from English Heritage and others.

    Learn more