THE literary heritage of the railway line that runs between Worcester and Ledbury will be celebrated with a project called ‘Poetry on Platforms’.

The Ledbury Poetry Festival has teamed up with the West Midlands Railway to launch the initiative, which will see scannable QR codes on station platforms that open to reveal poems, histories and memories of poets who have used the train line.

Festival Director Chloe Garner said: “Ledbury Poetry Festival has long wanted to highlight the role of the railway to the Festival. The railway’s legacy is little known – people should be made more aware of how the line has shaped and determined much of the area’s cultural landscape. The Festival encourages rail travel by all poets and performers travelling to the Festival, as well as by our considerable audience.”

Stations involved in the scheme are Worcester Shrub Hill, Foregate Street, Malvern Link, Great Malvern, Colwall and Ledbury.

Hannah Green, lead researcher on the project, said: “We’ve had really enthusiastic responses from poets and participants. 

“One of our first responses was from the poet John Hegley. It’s a lovely piece about eating custard creams at Great Malvern station on the way back from Ledbury Poetry Festival and thinking about his dad. 

“I’ve also been finding out loads of things about the heritage of the railways such as the ‘daffodil line’ that ran from Gloucester to Dymock bringing seasonal workers from London to pick the abundant daffodils to sell in the flower markets of the capital.”

The scheme is also supported by the Friends of the Dymock Poets. This group celebrates the lives and works of six poets who stayed in the Herefordshire village in the months before the First World War. Among them were Rupert Brooke and Edward Thomas, who both perished in the conflict.

Ledbury Poetry Festival — the biggest in Britain — has been held in the town since 1997 and is preparing to host its 26th event in July next year. Visit poetry-festival.co.uk for details.

Poetry on Platforms is one of 26 projects funded by West Midlands Railway’s ‘Your Community, Your Fund’. Other schemes supported by the fund include Ledbury Station’s artwork boards to celebrate the town’s heritage, a new guide for the Worcester and Cotswold Line and a performance by Great Malvern Brass Band at their local station.