Court Green

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Court Green in North Tawton, Devon in England was the home the poets Ted Hughes and Silvia Plath moved to in 1961. Plath left the house in December 1962 while Hughes lived there on and off for the rest of his life.

[edit] Sylvia Plath at Court Green

Plath wrote most of the Ariel poems here. She composed the Moon and the Yew Tree about the ancient yew tree located in the churchyard, which could be seen from her bedroom window; the tree can still be seen today. The poem, The Bee Meeting concerns an event which Plath observed just outside the river-wool-factory near Court Green. Percy Keys, a neighbour of the Hughes' during their time at Court Green, is mentioned in the Journals of Sylvia Plath and his funeral is remembered in Plath's poem, Berck-Plage: Keys is buried in the graveyard on the hill above the house.

[edit] Ted Hughes at Court Green

Ted Hughes wrote Crow and most of his latter work at the house. He wrote standing at a lectern, never stopping for lunch.

Ted Hughes died at this house in 1998. His friend Seamus Heaney read at the funeral service at the church across the lawn. Hughes' ashes were buried under a granite plinth a few miles away on Dartmoor.