I Have Never Been To Newbiggin Poem by C Richard Miles

I have never been to Newbiggin
Although I’ve seen it on the map and know its name.
Yet I have never been to Newbiggin
Although I’ve seen the sign that points there down the lane.
But I have never been to Newbiggin
Although I’ve seen it stretched out there, across the dale,
Its houses strung like pearls, squat stone
All yellow-grey along the single street.
And I have never been to Newbiggin
Though I have passed that way, at least once every year.
And still I fear that I will never go or ask
To see that hamlet deep in Bishopdale
Where, buried, lies a little of my past
For Newbiggin and Thoralby and Bishopdale
Homed long ago my forbears, birth to grave,
Where generations lived and died
And never left that spot, that such small place.
But though I’ve never been to Newbiggin,
I’ll take some part of Newbiggin with me for those
Who only knew of Newbiggin and nowhere else
And thus I’ll let those silent sleepers see the world.