The Robert Bloomfield Society News and Events

The Inestimable Blessing of Letters

2012-01-24T01:06:00.000-08:00

Romantic Circles has recently published a new collection of essays on Bloomfield, edited by John Goodridge and Bridget Keegan, and available online here.

Designed to accompany the online publication of Bloomfield's correspondence, these essays (by Tim Fulford, Peter Denney, Ian Haywood and Bridget Keegan) highlight and draw attention to aspects of his work that would in all likelihood not have been possible without full access to his letters. The essays included make a strong case for Bloomfield as a figure worthy of serious study and suggest how much more remains to be said about this important and prolific poet.

Society Summer Event

2011-11-19T00:35:00.000-08:00

A group of members gathered at Shefford on 19 August, a pleasantly warm late summer's day, to commemorate Bloomfield's death on that day in 1823. A very enjoyable and informative tour was made of sites which would have been familiar to Bloomfield or are associated with him.

The natural place to start was 'Bloomfield House' in Northbridge Street, with its plaque erected by Constance Isherwood, founder of the first Robert Bloomfield Society in 1904.

After exploring Shefford and enjoying lunch we drove the short distance to Campton village to view Bloomfield's grave in All Saints churchyard and the plaque on the south wall installed by the Society in 2003.

Besides Bloomfield's headstone, and touchingly inclined toward it, is that of his Shefford friend Thomas Inskip, who had paid for Bloomfield's stone.

Arrangements had been made previously with one of the church wardens for the church to be opened and we were warmly received. Of interest, in addition to the Welsh stone plaque, is the chapel containing monuments to members of the Osborn family of Chicksands and a memorial to the Rev. Edmond Williamson. Bloomfield had dined with Sir Charles Osborn at Chicksands Priory in 1810 and this helped precipitate his move from London in 1812. Edmond Williamson was the Campton rector in Bloomfield's time and evidence suggests they were on friendly terms.

The last stop in our peregrinations was the church and churchyard at the neighbouring village of Meppershall. Here are to be found the burial place of Constance Isherwood and her father, the then Rector of Mepperhsall and Treasurer of the first Bloomfield Society.

Finally, Dorothy Hoskins showed us the very beautiful headstone, in the same Welsh stone as the Bloomfield memorial plaque in Campton church, of her husband, Philip, buried here in 2007; to whom the current Robert Bloomfield Society owes an immesurable debt.

Adapted from The Robert Bloomfield Society, No. 22 (Autumn, 2011)

Annual Bloomfield Day and AGM

2011-03-10T03:37:00.000-08:00

The Annual Bloomfield Day and AGM is scheduled for the 2 April 2011; 10.30 for 11.00a.m. at Nottingham Trent University, which is generously providing hospitality as usual for the event. The address of the venue is Room GE 175, George Eliot Building, Clifton Campus, Clifton Lane, Nottingham, NG11 8NS.

The main speaker will be Dr. Adam Rounce, Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, who is a much published scholar and editor, especially in 18th century and Romantic literature. He will speak on "Bloomfield and the 18th Century". It is very encouraging that the Society continues to find fresh scholars willing and able to talk about Bloomfield, and I'm sure this will once again be a very interesting and informative occasion.

Later, we shall hold our AGM, which will review the past year, present the accounts and provide members with an opportunity to air their views and offer suggestions for future activities. We expect to conclude by approximately 3.15 p.m.

A buffet lunch will be provided at cost price.

Directions to Nottingham Trent University can be found by clicking on the following link

Please note that anyone travelling by train, should get the NCT bus number 1 or the Skylink, as the Unilink suggested on the University website does not run at the weekend. Timetables for NCT buses can be found here

Annual Prizegiving

2010-08-13T07:43:00.000-07:00

The annual Prizegiving and Year 8 Leavers’ evening at the Robert Bloomfield Middle School in Shefford was held on 19 July. This is, in fact, the fifth such occasion at which a representative of the Society has presented the Creative Writing Award funded by the Society.

The prizewinning student Rowan Lewis was presented with an attractively bound hardback copy of the Penguin anthology Poems for Life, which, though regrettably not including any poem by Bloomfield, seemed an appropriate award to such a gifted young writer as Rowan. Membership Secretary Angela Underhill once again attended the evening to make the presentation.

Annual Bloomfield Day and AGM - 27 March 2010

2009-11-10T11:06:00.000-08:00

The annual Bloomfield day and AGM will take place at Nottingham Trent University on 27 March 2010, and will feature David Woods reading a section from his novel based on Bloomfield's Wye Valley tour, a talk by John Goodridge on Bloomfield's friend and fellow Shefford resident, Thomas Inskip, and a discussion of Bloomfield's "lost" poem "To Immagination, the subject of a fascinating article by Tim Fulford in a recent number of the journal Romanticism.

Annual Bloomfield Day and AGM - 4th April 2009

2009-04-06T05:46:00.000-07:00

The annual Bloomfield Day and AGM took place on Saturday, 4th April, at Nottingham Trent University, which once again generously provided hospitality for the event.

We had four speakers this year, beginning with Dr Peter Cochran, whose talk had the arresting title "The Farmer's Boy restored and renovated - at Last". Dr Cochran focused on the differences between the poem as originally composed by Bloomfield, and as it appeared in print, with numerous alterations by Capel Lofft. The next talk, which was given by Dr Simon White of Oxford Brookes University, was entitled "Otatheite and The Farmer's Boy", and considered why Bloomfield chose to footnote the line 'Destroys life's intercourse; the social plan' towards the close of "Summer" with a long passage describing social relations in Otaheite.

After lunch, Dr Kerri Andrews reflected on the perils and pitfalls involved in designing the Society's website; while Professor Tim Fulford gave us a fascinating introduction to the forthcoming edition of Bloomfield's correspondence.

Before the AGM, we had an opportunity to hear a recording of "Robert Bloomfield's Jig", a new composition by the Bedfordshire folk-singer Graeme Meek.

Later this year, in June, we are proposing to visit the Edward Jenner Museum in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. This elegant Queen Anne house, where the great doctor lived, worked and died, is a fitting memorial to the man so much admired and celebrated by Bloomfield in his poetry. Further details will be sent to members shortly.