Itteringham
Itteringham lies a few miles north-west of
Aylsham. The name probably
derives from the homestead of Ytra's or Ytri's people. The poet George
Barker (1913-1991) is buried in St. Mary's churchyard.
At the foot of his grave lies a granite book with the
words: 'No
Compromise' inscribed.
George Barker's Grave
George Barker
Barker lived for many years in the village at Bintree House with his wife the novelist Elspeth
Barker. The flint and brick house lies just off the main
street - close to the River
Bure. The couple were able to acquire the house with
financial support from the novelist Graham Greene who
was a long-term admirer of Barker's poetry. In her essay
Thoughts in a Garden Elspeth Barker describes the
watery location of the house:
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'Mine is a riverine garden, and even indoors one is
aware of this, not just by gazing through the window but
by simply sitting still, committing words to paper in
the intense cold, while a great numbness seeps up
through feet and lower limbs. Hemlock and the death of
Socrates come forward in the mind. The tiled floor is
laid straight on the earth in the manner of 17th century
folk, and beneath this floor and a thin layer of earth
lie the black sullen waters of an underground lake.' |
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Barker's daughter Raffaella, who is also a writer, wrote Come and
Tell Me Some Lies (1994) - a semi-autobiographical
novel about growing up in the house. George Barker was
renowned as a hard drinker and womaniser and had a total
of 15 children by various women.
He also regularly used Methedrine and Benzedrine.
Bintree House
Barker also had a affair
with the Canadian poet Elizabeth Smart which inspired
her to write By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and
Wept. (Elizabeth Smart lived for many years at
Flixton in Suffolk and is buried in the churchyard at
St. Cross South Elmham.)
The River Bure
In his poem Morning in Norfolk Barker provides us
with a beautiful description of the River Bure:
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The dawn has brightened the
shallows and shadows and
the Bure sidles and idles
through weed isles and fallen
willows, and under
Itteringham Mill, and
there is a kind of rain-
drenched flittering in the
air, the night swan still
sleeps in her wings and over it all
the dawn heaps up the hanging
fire of the day. |
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Much of Barker's poetry concerns sin and
forgiveness and is intimately connected with his Roman Catholic
upbringing. However, in his later years he also found inspiration
from the Norfolk landscape - as can be seen in his
moving poem At Thurgarton Church.
He frequently visited
Thurgarton church - which lies a few miles north of
Itteringham - and was no doubt struck by its thatched
roof and lack of a tower.
Barker is often associated
with the 'new romantic' school of poetry - along with
Dylan Thomas. However, since his death Barker's
popularity has declined. The may be due, in part, to the
success of the Movement poets such as Philip Larkin.
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Links:
St. Mary's Church
Itteringham Village
Website
Elizabeth Smart's Grave
Raffaella
Barker |
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by Norfolk Tourism