Moortown Diary

First edition (Faber & Faber)

Moortown Diary, sometimes just known as Moortown, is a poetry diary which details the everyday life of a working farm, first published in 1979.^[1] The author, poet Ted Hughes, married Carol Orchard, a farmer's daughter, in 1970. Ted and his father-in-law, Jack Orchard, ran Moortown farm near Winkleigh in Mid Devon. The book contains a moving tribute to Jack Orchard, who died in 1976.^[2]

Ted later gave up farming, but kept the farmhouse. He used the building for accommodating writers and poets, notably Seamus Heaney. He sold the farmhouse about a year before his death.

Poems

Some poems in the collection include:

• Rain
• Dehorning
• Bringing in New Couples
• Tractor
• Roe-Deer
• Sketching a Thatcher
• Ravens
• February 17th
• Birth of Rainbow
• The Day He Died^[3]

References

1. "Moortown". The Ted Hughes Society. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
2. Oswald, Alice (3 December 2005). "Wild things". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
3. "Voetica Poetry Spoken". voetica.com. Retrieved 5 June 2025.