In 2014 Get Changed Theatre Company - an arts and drama charity for adults with learning disabilities - carried out an impressive project called Get Changed Makes History in collaboration with the National Trust Castle Drogo. As part of the project, the participant wrote poems which you can read here.

1. Get Changed Makes History
Poems inspired by characters and the
environment of Castle Drogo. Eight poems
reflecting the thoughts and feelings
of Get Changed Participants.

2. I hear here………
Inspired poem by Tony Henshaw. 22.3.14
Written for Get Changed Makes History project at Castle Drogo 2014.
quiet sound of the wind,
storm coming.
heavy rain
rattles the sky.
tree falling down,
phwooooophshh.

3. In the kitchen
cook
boiling the kettle on the stove,
hot water, bubbling, busy,
cup of tea,
tray, taken up.
in the drawing room
get the match out
strike it
shhhwooooopahhh...tuuuuuuushhh
light the candles,
the candle
lit
sounds like the wind,
I hear here………
Inspired poem by Tony Henshaw and Matt Bambrick. 22.3.14
Written for Get Changed Makes History project at Castle Drogo 2014.
In the kitchen
cook
boiling the kettle on the stove,
hot water, bubbling, busy,
cup of tea,
tray, taken up.
in the drawing room
get the match out
strike it
shhhwooooopahhh...tuuuuuuushhh
light the candles,
the candle
lit
sounds like the wind,
wind outside comes down the
chimney
and snuffs
the candle
out

4. Inspired poem by David Axford 22.3.14
Written for Get Changed Makes History project at Castle Drogo 2014.
the garden will grow,
and the white fog,
floating. i hear the
quiet.
i see an old
photograph, black
and white,
of the garden
with children playing,
in the garden, in the
fog,
they should go back
into the castle,
its cold outside, very
cold, very wet
and now its evening.
in the black dark
black night i see
many stars and i
hear
the moon, white.
i see an old
photograph, black
and white,
of the moon
shining in through
the window
onto the books,
light so strong,
flashing very strong,
and shining
lights, through the
castle windows,
the people appear,
i see their black
shadows through the
curtains,
appear, and
disappear, and are
gone
like the white fog
floating
away.
I hear here………

5. Inspired poem by Elaine Cawley. 22.3.14
Written for Get Changed Makes History project at Castle Drogo 2014.
happy singing birds,
wind blows away
the ants, walking.
quiet.
trees, rain,
relaxing,
the sun is coming,
out.

6. I hear here………
Inspired poem by Susie James and Matt Bryne . 22.3.14
Written for Get Changed Makes History project at Castle Drogo 2014.
a choir of birds,
footsteps of people, walking,
crunching gravel.
a robin whispering ”just eating
worms”.
cutting grass, a lawnmower man,
mowing.
driving into the barn, taking them
into the barn,
tractor engine sound, picking up
potatoes
and carrots.
people talking, about the castle, the
flags out,
in the castle they are getting ready
to eat the potatoes and the carrots.
the queen, the celebration, shaking
the hands,
overhead the helicopter, ”your
majesty”
bowing and curtseying.
hair blowing in the wind,
rain plop plob plop plob,
thunder boom, coming closer,
the lights coming out, coming on
in the dark
of the castle,
wet we run inside.

7. I hear here………
Inspired poem by David Axford 22.3.14
Written for Get Changed Makes History project at Castle Drogo 2014.
i hear wind
and hailstones
dropping down
on the leaves
i hear fog
floating to hills
i hear the birds
praying and singing
together
i hear
the wind is blowing,
the leaves are shaking,
the leaves rattling
slowly the wind
is calm and down,
sunny, yeah,
full stop.
here i hear the sound
of all that music

8. I hear here………
Inspired poem by Sian Phillips 22.3.14
Written for Get Changed Makes History project at Castle Drogo 2014.
birds singing, just tweeting, saying
we’ve got a happy day, and people
talking
i hear trees like waves, its very cold
on the waves
travelling off to the seaside, over the
sea
off to who knows where, imagine
a hundred years ago
a hundred years ago, people talking
in the castle
”we like to sleep during the day,
sit and have a doze, and tea, by the
fire”
and they talk about
what it would be like, in a hundred
years time
time for tea, setting the tables,
getting the chairs ready,
rushing round, laying the tables
with table cloths and silver cutlery.
teatime, setting off to war, getting
ready,
walking slowly, leaving and laying
down to sleep
with clothes on, and with no tea even.
a hundred years ago at war, i wouldn’t
want to
do it, to fight, i’d be frightened,
people rushing round, talking, arguing,
unhappy,
very very cold, like it is today.
today i know what i’m going to do
later,
put my feet up, by the fire. a happy
day.

9. I hear here………
Inspired poem by David Axford 22.3.14
Written for Get Changed Makes History project at Castle Drogo 2014.
In the wind, in ages gone,
1914, writing home,
letters home, he wrote
i’m sorry i’m not going to
be there,
i want to go home.
some young men left,
left to become soldiers,
a black dagger of a train,
taking them to fight
on the battlefield,
many killed,
left there,
never came back home at
all.
on the battlefield, i hear
guns and cannons, cold and
wind, i hear
a voice in the sky
crying.
i hear a whispering voice in
the wind,
i want to go home.