THE board of Mitcheldean Library, delighted with the success of this year’s Young Poets’ Competition teamed up with the judges of the ‘Junior Forest Bard’ to award a special certificate.

Everybody had been impressed with Malachi Beach’s poem ‘They Volk o’ the Vurrest o’ Dean’ that used local dialect that they decided to honour him as they felt the poem was so good that it should reach a wider audience.

They Volk o’ the Vurrest o’ Dean

by Malachi Beach

If thee bist lookin’ for a place to stay,

Instead o’ big cities, come lookin’ our way

The prettiest place that’s thou’st ever sin,

B’longs to they volk o’ the Vurrest o’ Dean.

The craturs we ’ave are somethin’ to view

With squidgees and deer and them wild boar too,

Ship roamin’ free as them allus ’ave bin

B’longs to they volk o’ the Vurrest o’ Dean.

Here in the Vurrest we’re proud o’ our past

From the bare workin’ scowles, to the ruins that last,

Them auld mysteries hidin’ ’nith th’ green,

B’longs to they volk o’ the Vurrest o’ Dean.

If bin getting outside is what you’d loike,

Thou’st con canoe, thee’st con walk, or go thee boike.

Thay long winding trials that d’help you kip lean

B’longs to they volk o’ the Vurrest o’ Dean.

A passports byunt needed to journey our way,

But a phrasebook ’ull be ’andy to learn what we d’soy;

A tongue as yunt spoke by king nor queen,

B’longs to they volk o’ the Vurrest o’ Dean.