As the sun beats down on Brimham Rocks, Natalie Anastasia Davies is surveying the landscape; the ancient stones scattered across the 50-acre site look as if they would be more at home in a fantasy epic than in North Yorkshire.
The 33-year-old poet is the National Trust site’s first writer in residence and over the next few months will immerse herself here, observing the dramatic landscape change as the months pass. She will watch the plants transform, the leaves on the trees turn from verdant greens to crisp browns, and hear the sounds of the animals change with the seasons.
Davies will use all of this to produce poetry inspired by this site and its ancient stones and, she said, “really encapsulate the space in poetry and in words”.
In the time she has spent with the rocks so far, Davies added, they have inspired her to think about “the things that build over time in our lives, and the migrations in our lives”.
“These rocks were essentially probably formed from a mountain range in Scotland,” she said. “So it’s really got me thinking about changes, migrations, and how the picture changes, and builds across our lives.
“There are [also] simple ideas like just how much more peaceful we feel in nature,” she added. “When we’re living such busy lives and nothing stops, it’s the moments when you have time to reflect that it really occurs to you what you want in life, what you want to do with your life.”
Davies will also be leading workshops for amateur nature writers and local schoolchildren, helping them to draw their own creative inspiration from the rocks.
She would encourage participants to “really soak it in, and explore it and start to think, ‘What does this represent for me? What metaphors can I find from experiencing this place?’
“I believe that everyone is inherently creative. But the world isn’t really put together in a way that allows us to see that.”
The residency was open only to writers from the area and Davies, who is Yorkshire-born and of Grenadian descent, fitted the bill.
“I was born in Huddersfield and moved to Leeds,” she said. “So I’ve always stayed close to home. Home, the landscape and family means a lot to me.”
Erica Morris from Word Up North, which partnered with the National Trust to launch the residency, said it was in part about “trying to open out the people who get to tell stories about natural spaces”. Particularly in terms of work that is published, she said, “It does tend to still be quite white, quite middle class, nature writing.”
Often, Morris said, authors who are published will live in London and write about visiting Scotland, or Cornwall or Yorkshire, but “there are people in the north of England who live in these spaces, who have stories to tell as well. We’re trying to open the door about who gets to tell the stories, which stories get told, about landscape and nature.”
Davies, who grew up in a working-class household, recognises that nature writing can often be difficult to break into without the “right” background or connections.
“So many people who are made writer in residence, or anything like that, often are from very middle-class backgrounds, or have had a lot of money behind them,” she said. “It is a really special thing to have the opportunity to get something like this, and just really make it yours.”
Justin Scully, the site’s general manager, said the residency had come about from a one-off partnership with the West Yorkshire-born poet laureate Simon Armitage, who created a work based on Brimham Rocks last year.
The poem, Balancing Act, has been carved into two large stones that now stand permanently on the site.
Staff at Brimham Rocks realised that through the arts, visitors could experience “more than just a nice day out”. “It’s a much more deep way of engaging with the place,” Scully added.
While since the Covid pandemic people have started to appreciate the outdoors more, he said, “What we can build on that is people really understanding the importance of the nature, the rocks, the animals that make this place their home.
“And also it’s great for people to think differently about the National Trust. We’re not just looking after. We’re also sort of bringing people in and deepening their appreciation.”
Davies had visited the site once before, while at university, when she said she was “just absolutely amazed to know that this space was in Yorkshire”. But the time she has spent here since taking up the position has deepened her appreciation.
“I honestly don’t think there’s anywhere like it,” Davies said. “It’s lush, but rugged at the same time. And in the different weathers, it’s just something else: misty, eerie, bright, beautiful. It’s all of the things.”
