Heritage: Two metre-tall sculpture for Calderdale poet gets go ahead - despite his widow's objection

Calderdale Council has approved plans for the two metre-high sculpture to mark the work of of the famous poet who was born in the village.

The proposals were opposed by Mr Hughes’s widow, Carol, who wrote to the council saying she had not been consulted and did not think the design – depicting a large milk churn and two life-size foxes - was appropriate.

Last Autumn, Geoff Wood of Royd Regeneration, who submitted the plans, said he was disappointed to hear her concerns and said they had been under the impression Mrs Hughes, who lives in Devon, knew about the sculpture and was comfortable with it.

Mr Wood said full consultation had been done with Ted Hughes charity the Elmet Trust.

It felt uncomfortable for the village to feel it could not honour Mr Hughes without the consent of someone who does not live there, he said.

Mr Hughes, who died in 1998, was born in Aspinall Street in Mytholmroyd and lived there, attending Burnley Road School – now Burnley Road Academy – until the age of seven when his family moved to Mexborough.

Nature played a part in the poet’s work, with his boyhood in the Calder Valley providing some significant inspiration.

If it goes ahead, the sculpture will be in the centre of the village and would increase interest in Mr Hughes’s legacy, said the planning application.

Approving the plans, council planners said objections were largely concerned with the subject matter and its relation to the character of Mr Hughes.

“Whilst there have been four strong objections to the sculpture, they related to the subject matter and potential cost of the fabrication,” they said.

“The council’s principal conservation officer raised no concerns in relation to the siting or design of the sculpture in planning terms.”

The sculpture would be placed next to the central bridge in the heart of Mytholmroyd, says the application.

Ted Hughes was a Poet Laureate.

He was the youngest of the three children of William and Edith Hughes, who were both from well known Calder Valley families.