Three Swallows in the River Meadows

Stuart Mills

The poem in context.

This is the only ‘picture poem’ on the trail. Stuart was fascinated by the pictorial possibilities of a poem as well as its content.

Stuart Mills was born in Flintshire but was brought up in Birmingham and studied painting at Birmingham Art College. He ran two publishing houses to encourage new poets and writers, first ‘Tarasque Press’ (from the name of a mythical French monster) and later ‘Aggie Weston’s’ (from the pioneer of sailors’ rest homes) – this last in Belper. He also opened galleries and bookshops.

Stuart had a special friendship with the sculptor Ian Hamilton Finlay and published a book by him.

After moving to Belper in the 1970s Stuart was also a lecturer in Derby.

The glass poem was restored in 2014 by Janice Ayers. This restoration was made possible by a grant from the Mansfield Building Society