Visiting Sylvia Plath In Heptonstall Churchyard.

It is now Saturday night, and only two days since I returned from Yorkshire, but the memory is already beginning to fade like the mists on the moors, so I thought I should tell you about it now before I forget something important. I arrived in Wakefield on Sunday afternoon where my friends Jacky & Bill were waiting patiently at Westgate station because my train was over an hour late. On Monday morning we met up with another very close friend who was visiting, and loves the north of England. We visited Wakefield Cathedral and a small museum. Sadly, the interesting places such as Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Hepworth Gallery were closed on Mondays. It was nice to go for lunch in a very pleasant pub called The Castle. 

The highlight of Tuesday for me was an afternoon walk through St Aiden’s Nature Reserve which covers 877 acres of a former open-cast coal mine which was flooded from the nearby river Aire. It is now in the care of the RSPB (Royal Society For The Protection Of Birds). The path passed through a variety of habitats including reedbed, wetland, meadows and woodland which are home to many species of bird including cormorants, the Eurasian bittern, little owl, western marsh harrier, Eurasian skylark, black-necked grebe, black-headed gull. Northern lapwing and common redshank. It felt good to have some fresh air and exercise.

I have wanted to visit Hebden Bridge for a few years now. You may recall I wrote a piece a couple of years ago called ‘Hebden Bridge, Circa 1971-74’. These days it is a popular tourist attraction famed for its arts and culture and has a vibrant music scene. It is home to artists, writers, photographers, musicians, alternative practitioners, teachers, Green and New Age activists and wealthier 'yuppie' types. You might know it from the popular TV drama Happy Valley which was filmed there. Well, on Wednesday morning Jacky & Bill kindly offered to take me there. I didn’t enjoy the first part of the journey along the M62, but as soon as we got off the motorway it was wonderful looking at the places and countryside along the Calder valley. The first place I wanted to see wasn’t actually in Hebden Bridge, but in the hills above it, a small village called Heptonstall. 

This is because I had heard that the poet Sylvia Plath was buried there in St Thomas’s churchyard. I can’t claim to be a big fan of her work. In fact, I don’t recall ever reading a book by her. I do remember that my partner Kim related to something in Sylvia Plath’s work because she had two of her books The Bell Jar and Ariel. I think Sylvia mainly appeals to a female feminist readership. I do however know about her tragic life and marriage to Ted Hughes. We had no trouble finding her grave because as we arrived four girls who were leaving through the gate directed us straight to it. She must have thousands of visitors every year. 

What I noticed immediately was there had been attempts to remove HUGHES from her headstone. My opinion is that it was very arrogant of him to include his name. They had separated after she discovered his affair with Assia Wevill. If Sylvia hadn’t committed suicide, no doubt they would have divorced, and she would had reverted to being known simply as Sylvia Plath. The other question is why is she buried here at all? It was Ted Hughes who came from this area, not Sylvia who was American, she should have been returned to her home country in my opinion. I don’t want to be too hard on Ted Hughes. I don’t blame him entirely for her death. From what I have read I don’t think she told him about her history of mental illness and previous suicide attempts before they married. I don’t think I should say any more about their relationship because only they knew the truth.

After we left Sylvia’s graveside we discovered the grave of another poet only a few feet away. Asa Benveniste (August 25, 1925–April 13, 1990) an American-born poet, typographer and publisher who was born in New York and settled in England in the 1950s. In the 1980s Benveniste and his second partner Agnetha Falk moved to Hebden Bridge where they ran a second-hand bookshop. When he died in 1990, Benveniste was buried in the graveyard of Heptonstall church, with a gravestone that reads: "Foolish Enough to Have Been a Poet". He was both pleased and amused that his grave was to be within speaking distance of Sylvia Plath a few feet away. So, I think he deliberately chose this spot as his final resting place. I hadn’t heard of Asa before, but have since read that besides being a poet, in London during 1965, he co-founded and managed the pioneering Trigram Press, which published work by George Barker, Tom Raworth, Jack Hirschman, J. H. Prynne, David Meltzer, B. S. Johnson, Jim Dine, Jeff Nuttall, Gavin Ewart, Ivor Cutler, Anselm Hollo, and Lee Harwood, among others. In 1966, Trigram Press produced the second and final issue of a little magazine called Residu, which included work by Alexander Trocchi, William S. Burroughs, Harold Norse, Gregory Corso, Harry Fainlight, Gerard Malanga and other Beat Generation and underground writers. I have read quite a few books by some of those writers, so Asa was quite an important figure on the British literary scene.

After that churchyard interlude, we retired to a pub The Shoulder Of Mutton in Hebden Bridge for a pleasant lunch. The weather was so mild for November we were able to sit outside. Then we had a look around Hebden Bridge. In a charity shop I found a CD by David Gray called White Ladder. I bought it for 50 pence and gave it to Jacky & Bill because a couple of nights earlier I had said to them, “David Gray is playing in Bath soon if you want to come and see him”. I was amazed that they had never heard of David Gray. On the way home I insisted that they play David Gray. My favourite track is ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’. I think they liked it. (See video below) 

That evening we met up with Jacky’s brother Chris and his wife Denise who I hadn’t seen for about 40 years, so it was wonderful to see them again. Next morning I headed home. The great thing was I had Jacky & Bill’s company as far as London because they were going to visit their grandchildren. We said farewell at Kings Cross. I had said hello, and waved goodbye to my too brief trip to Yorkshire, but I hope we meet again before too long.  

David Gray - Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.