In 2024 we partnered with the National Trust’s Brimham Rocks site to appoint Natalie Anastasia Davies as their Writer in Residence.
Following the 2023 commission by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage to create a poem inspired by Brimham Rocks, we partnered with the National Trust to create the opportunity for a Yorkshire-based writer to build on this legacy.
The opportunity attracted a fantastic response and Yorkshire-born poet Natalie Anastasia Davies was successful in securing the position of Writer in Residence at Brimham Rocks, 2024. Natalie is a poet and facilitator of Grenadian descent. Her work explores themes of connection and memory, cultural identity, and the climate crisis. Natalie appreciates art which penetrates the heart of the matter and the heart of the listener. It is her vision to draw parallels between the personal and global experience, to provoke environmental change.
“As a writer and human being, I believe that connection with the natural world is integral to our sense of meaning and wellbeing. It is a rare thing in our bustling lives to have time in nature; to be, realise and create. I feel privileged to be chosen as the first Brimham Rocks Writer in Residence and plan to fully embrace this opportunity.”
Natalie Anastasia Davies
The residency took place over 4 months from July-October 2024. As Writer in Residence, Natalie created and ran a series of writing workshops for aspiring nature writers. She was also commissioned to research and develop an original work inspired by the natural environment of Brimham Rocks, cared for by the National Trust, and the people who visit.
Read on to find out about Natalie’s commission, ‘Migrations of Stone’.
Migrations of Stone
Over a series of months, Natalie immersed herself in the site at Brimham Rocks; meeting visitors and volunteers, traversing the natural spectacle of the giant rock formations and heather moorland and exploring the ecology and history of a site sculpted by 320 million years of movement and hundreds of thousands of years of ice, rain and wind. ‘Migrations of Stone’ is her poetic response.
You can now pick up a copy of ‘Migrations of Stone’ and see a video of the poem being performed by Natalie Anastasia Davies in the Visitor Centre at Brimham Rocks.