The Hine Spring's Inspirational Poem
'The People's Spring': A poem to commemorate the restoration of the Hine Spring at Great Linford Manor Park.
As part of our National Lottery Heritage Fund project at Great Linford Manor Park, we have been busy revealing the Hine Spring, a natural limestone spring which emerges in the park. Our designs called for a decorative basin to be created from the Blisworth limestone found in the area, finished with a complementary poem engraved around the water's edge.
In 2020, we commissioned Milton Keynes Poet Laureate, Mark Niel, to write a few lines of poetry inspired by the historic parkland. Mark adopted the brief enthusiastically, getting to know the park, attending guided walks and meeting with members of the Friends of Great Linford Manor Park.
As part of his creative process, Mark wrote a longer poem called 'The People's Spring'. From this, the Friends of Great Linford Manor Park selected their favourite lines, which were engraved onto the Hine Spring basin in 2022. To launch the verse, we hosted a Poetry Competition in the summer of 2022, where over 100 local people wrote their own poems inspired by the park. The winning entries were made into a temporary trail through the park. The poems were also included in MK Litfest's sound trail of the local area. Here, you can listen to recordings of the poems as an accompaniment to a walk through the park.
We liked Mark's full poem so much, that we have had it made into a plaque which has now been installed adjacent to the spring. The yellow 'S' belongs to the alphabet trail which leads visitors through the park, which will be launched with a downloadable trail soon.
