About the FDP

The Friends of the Dymock Poets (FDP) was founded in 1993 to:

  1. Be ‘Friends’ of six poets who had an association with the Dymock area of Gloucestershire, namely Lascelles Abercrombie, Rupert Brooke, John Drinkwater, Robert Frost, Wilfrid Gibson, and Edward Thomas.
  2. Promote and encourage, for the public benefit, knowledge and appreciation of the works
    and lives of the poets and their families and friends who lived or visited the Dymock area
    before and during the First World War.
  3. Increase public knowledge and appreciation of the cultural and natural history
    of Gloucestershire/Herefordshire/Worcestershire border country.

Cover of the Friends of the Dymock Poets JournalWe offer our members:

  • Dymock Poets and Friends, an annual journal containing original archive material together with essays on the Poets which relate them to the wider poetic context
  • a newsletter with information about forthcoming events, new books and activities
  • lectures, poetry readings, social meetings, publications
  • guided walks in the countryside of the Dymock poets
  • links with other literary societies
  • an annual event to commemorate the first meeting between Edward Thomas and Robert Frost on 6 October 1913, and the founding of the FDP exactly eighty years later.

The FDP’s officers and committee are:

  • President: Kelsey Thornton
  • Chair: Robert Moreland
  • Secretary: Bert Molsom
  • Treasurer: Andrew Davis
  • Membership Secretary: Clare Church
  • Web Site Manager: Neil Maybin
  • University Liaison: Rowan Middleton
  • Journal Editor: John Monks
  • Dymock Church display and Facebook: Jackie Tweedale

You can contact us by sending an email to contact@dymockpoets.org.uk.

If you would like to join, please visit our membership page.

For more information on our history, see our History of the FDP page
and Linda Hart’s article on the founding of the Friends of the Dymock Poets.

All the photos on this website were taken by Linda Hart (chairman of the FDP from 1993-2001) except for that of Little Iddens on the History page which was taken by Pugh’s Estate Agency of Ledbury and which is reproduced with their kind permission.