Bradwell

Bradwell my family name and I come from

Bradwell village, from my mothers womb, 1923

I'm a bit ancient

It's my home, my doorstep free

Dad had the butchers and grocers shop

Remember him taking food surreptitiously

To people who couldn't afford

They'd tell me secretly

Strong opinions in the village: chapel or church?

He'd say I'm going to chapel this week,

And church the next, had his own views

Constricted he'd never be.

He never lifted a hand to us, he'd just speak

Quietly persuasive, deeply meek.

Leslie Bradwell

Hope

DCCC003815 Image courtesy of www.picturethepast.org.uk

From the arthur+martha project Stitching the Wars. A Two year collaboration with older people in Derbyshire, producing two embroidered quilts, a book, interviews and a series of poems. 

More poems found here. A short documentary film about the project found here.