CHURCH TO BE ERECTED - Transform Snibston William Wordsworth Trail

The spot for Swannington Church was selected by the great English poet William Wordsworth who lived in the area at Coleorton 1806 - 1807 with his family at Coleorton Hall Farm as a guest of Sir George Beaumont. The spot was also the inspiration for his series of poems called The Ecclesiastical Sonnets.

This picture comes out of Paul Conneally's cultural forage 'Spoil Heap Harvest' for Transform Snibston, Snibston Discovery Museum.

It features on Conneally's 'Transform Snibston William Wordsworth Trail'

CHURCH TO BE ERECTED

BE this the chosen site; the virgin sod,

Moistened from age to age by dewy eve,

Shall disappear, and grateful earth receive

The corner-stone from hands that build to God.

Yon reverend hawthorns, hardened to the rod

Of winter storms, yet budding cheerfully;

Those forest oaks of Druid memory,

Shall long survive, to shelter the Abode

Of genuine Faith. Where, haply, 'mid this band

Of daisies, shepherds sate of yore and wove 

May-garlands, there let the holy altar stand

For kneeling adoration;--while--above,

Broods, visibly portrayed, the mystic Dove,

That shall protect from blasphemy the Land.

William Wordsworth