Low Tharston
Low Tharston is a tiny village which lies on the
River Tas approximately one
mile west of Tasburgh. The
name probably derives from 'Therir's enclosure'. Despite
its small size, the village has been home to two
significant modern poets: Anthony Thwaite and Edwin
Brock.
Low Tharston Sign
Anthony Thwaite (1930 -
In the 1970s the poet and editor Anthony Thwaite moved into the Mill House here
along with his wife, the literary biographer, Ann
Thwaite. (The Mill
House is the pink building in the background.)
Tharston Mill
It provided them with a refuge from London life and
they soon fell in love with the building and life in
South Norfolk. Admittedly, Norfolk was not a major
influence on Thwaite's poetry, but he did write a fine poem about the lost village of
Eccles.
Thwaite was educated at Christ Church College Oxford
and held academic posts in Japan, Libya and Kuwait. He
was also Philip Larkin's editor and literary executor
and Larkin visited The Mill House. In fact, there is a
wonderful photograph of Larkin reclining
in a punt on the river which appeared in his volume of
Selected Letters 1940-1985.
Philip Larkin on the River Tas @ Ann Thwaite
Anthony Thwaite
While staying with the Thwaites - Larkin also visited
Forncett St Peter -
no doubt because of its connection with William
Wordsworth.
Edwin Brock (1927-1997)
By strange coincidence another poet, Edwin Brock,
moved into 'The Granary' next door to the Thwaites.
Born in South London in 1927 Brock worked as a
policeman and an advertising executive while pursuing
his own poetry.
Edwin Brock: Poet He moved to Norfolk with his second
wife Elizabeth Skilton and for him the landscape and the River Tas
provided a major inspiration. There
are many poems with Norfolk settings in his collections
Five Ways to Kill a Man (1990) and And
Another Thing (1998). Brock was also the
editor of Ambit - a respected poetry journal -
for nearly 40 years.
Here is the opening verse of his poem
The Ghost Dancer:
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