Ted Hughes Birthplace at Mytholmroyd

The West Yorkshire house in which the late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes was born. Ted Hughes lived at the three-bedroomed end-terrace at 1 Aspinall Street, Mytholmroyd, near Hebden Bridge, from his birth on 17 August 1930 until 1938. At least eight of his poems are set in the house with dozens more inspired by the village and surrounding moorland. Hughes’ Pennines birthplace was built around 1899 as a Calder Valley millworkers’ house. His parents, William and Edith, bought the house on 5 December 1927 and sold it on 12 September 1938. The Mount Zion Methodist Church inspired Hughes in his childhood. The birthplace of the poet, who died in 1998, is commemorated by a blue heritage plaque on the wall of the house and a monument stone as you enter Mytholmroyd village. The website says: “The property represents an investment in a crucial piece of British literary history.” In an interview, Hughes said of the family’s decision to move house when he was seven years old: “That really sealed off my first seven years so that my first seven years seem half my life. I’ve remembered almost everything.” In his poem “Mount Zion” Hughes wrote about the impact of the Mount Zion Methodist Church, which towered above 1 Aspinall Street in his childhood. He described it as: “…a building blocking the moon/It’s wall my first direction… above the kitchen window, that uplifted mass…” From the BBC Web Site 6th January 2005