KIRKBY Stephen Poetry Path wordsmith, Meg Peacocke is working with six pupils from Kirkby Stephen Primary School on a new project to be unveiled in Penrith.

The theme of the path is the inspiration for Courtney Walton, Jack Thornborrow, Lucy Metcalfe, Jess Dillon, Eleanor Hughes and Jenny Gornall and, in just two sessions a week for a fortnight, the pupils are working with Meg to produce a piece of work that will be an exhibit in the Blue Bell Book Shop in Angel Square.

Meg said: "I was asked to do a poetry reading, next month at Bluebell Bookshop and Jan Merry there asked if I could do something within the visual art space within the shop, working with a small group of children. It is still a work in progress at the moment, but the words will be at the centre of a window display.

"I do have an idea of doing an extended poem on long strips of paper, slate and stones. The theme "A Path" is a literal and metaphorical path and it is great working with this group of people, who I worked with last year on a project linked to the Kirkby Stephen Poetry path."

Meg, from North Stainmore, was commissioned by the East Cumbria Countryside Project to capture a year in the life of a hill farmer for the Kirkby Stephen Poetry Path, a £40,000 project that was officially opened this summer by Wordsworth Trust director Dr Robert Woof.

From an original idea of Dick Capel, of The East Cumbria Countryside Project, the path was installed in just six-months. Walkers follow a route which is marked by 12 specially-placed stone monuments some limestone, some sandstone that represent the complex geological mix of the area as a junction for Yorkshire Dales limestone meeting the Eden Valley's trademark red sandstone.

The 12 short poems that represent the months of the year have been written by Meg and have been carved on to stones supplied by Derbyshire-based Stancliffe Stone Company by lettering artist Pip Hall, of Reading.

Meg Peacocke was chosen as the project's poet by a steering committee including Dick Capel; farmer Paul Dixon, of Nateby; Alex Birtles, of Kirkby Stephen Town Council; Glenys Lumley, representing Nateby Parish; Mike Sunderland of the Railway Viaduct Trust; and landowner Andrew Davies.

l LOCAL poet Meg Peacocke is pictured with inspirational Kirkby Stephen Primary School pupils Courtney Walton, Lucy Metcalfe, Jess Dillon, Jenny Gornall and Jack Thornborrow.