Daleswoman, Shepherdess and Pilgrim

Kate Rhodes (1929−2023) was a poet of rare clarity and power. Born in Bradford, she read English at Bedford College, University of London. She was Head of English for two years at Guildford Girls’ High School and for four years at Arundel  School, Salisbury, S. Rhodesia (now Harare in Zimbabwe), where she wrote poems on the African climate. Returning to Yorkshire, she continued teaching for 18 years at Skipton Girls’ High School but also began 29 years’ volunteering as assistant shepherd on a hill-farm at Appletreewick in Upper Wharfedale. Sheep inspired a series of poems; so did medieval stained glass, which she studied in depth through the Friends of York Minster. After retiring, she led a literature group for the University of the Third Age. Her through knowledge of Wordsworth’s poetry made her a valued member of the annual Wordsworth Winter School. It led her to write her finest poetry, on the natural world and on growing old, in the last years of her long life.

• Introduction; Africa, 1963–4; Wharfedale, 1984–5; The Stained Glass of York Minster, 1980–4; Shepherding, 1984; Nature, 2021–3; Nostalgia, 2021–3