On Saturday, 3 July the Shelley Memorial Project officially launched their fund-raising campaign for a permanent, public memorial, in Horsham, to the great Romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley.
The first fund-raisng event, the Shelleython, will take place over the weekend of 31st July/1st August in Horsham Park. In this sponsored event a team of volunteer readers, from across the vast community of Shelley enthusiasts, will undertake a public reading of Shelley's complete poetic works; a collection of 450 poems.
Shelley is internationally recognised as amongst the most famous and most influential of English poets, and yet there is no public memorial to Shelley in Horsham, the town most associated with his family and early life. The Shelley Memorial Project is, therefore, endeavouring to ensure that the breadth of Shelley's contribution to our cultural, scientific and social heritage is commemorated, in way that will provide enjoyment and inspiration to residents and visitors to Horsham.
The secretary of the Shelley Memorial Project, Carol Hayton, said ‘ We are really excited about our first fund-raising event which we are organising with the support of the Friends of Horsham Park. We have a great team of volunteers who will be taking part in a public reading of Shelley’s poems in the park; people from across the community, local schools and some well known local residents including, Jeremy Quin MP and Chris Aldridge, who Radio 4 listeners will know well! We would welcome more readers so anyone who would like to come along to read is invited to get in touch!
We hope that Shelley enthusiasts will sponsor our team and help us raise the funds we need to commission a fantastic public art work that will commemorate the great poet and his connection to our town. Sponsors can find our People’s Fundraising page via the following link:
www.peoplesfundraising.com/donation/shelleython
Any one who would like to find out more or get involved can contact the Project via the following email address, shelleymemorialproject@btinternet.com or visit our website
