LAST weekend’s celebration of the life of Simon Evans, Shropshire’s Postman Poet, was a runaway success, organisers say.

‘At one stage people simply couldn’t get into the exhibition, the room was so packed,’ organiser Gill Guest explained. ‘Val Simpson’s ‘Simon Evans: In the footsteps of a survivor’ walk, one of twenty ‘Walks on the Home Front’ supported by Shropshire Council, was massively oversubscribed, and our concert by electro Folk band ‘Whalebone’ was absolutely full. We couldn’t have been more pleased.’

Vintage teas in the sunshine provided by CoCo (Cleobury Compassionate Communities) in the unexpected setting of the library ‘garden’, were delicious and extremely popular, the ginger cake ‘with icing an inch thick’ earning a thumbs up from Whalebone lead guitarist Steve Downs, who couldn’t resist giving it a special mention in the concert.

Over 80 entries were received for the ‘My Simon Evans Way’ photographic competition, a magnificent effort. They made a wonderful display and really captured the countryside Evans loved and walked in every day. Judge was prizewinning photographer Claire Carter and the winners were Don Thompson (adult class) and Katie Sales (under 16s).

The three-day celebration concluded with a rather damp hike to the summit of Abdon Burf, where Evans’ ashes are scattered, to mark the 120th anniversary of his birth. Fittingly, the walk was led by Suzanne Thomas, the originator of the whole idea, and Evans’ ‘Abdon Burfday’ was celebrated at the summit with cake and candles.

Simon Evan’s biographer, Dr Mark Baldwin, described the event as ‘a triumph’, while visitors quickly upgraded the event from a simple ‘celebration’ and began referring to it instead as a fully fledged ‘Simon Evans Festival’.

Selection of actual email quotes below:

Mark Baldwin:

A triumph, well done indeed, Your imagination and hard work created a wonderful event. I have already spoken to two people who could not get in - that is success.

Keith Pybus who co-wrote the War Walk leaflet with Val Simpson:

Since the creation of the Simon Evans Way, Cleobury Mortimer has set the rest of the county an example. Round about the Crooked Steeple their Celebration of the Life and Works of Simon Evans was just as pioneering. A lesson for us all was that the First World War did not end in 1918 or in 1920. Even today, men like Simon Evans are inspirational. Despite being gassed, he transformed his adversity into creativity, into his articles, books and broadcasts.The Friends of the Cleobury Mortimer library found imaginative ways of harnessing Simon Evans' love of the local landscape into the photographic competition and calendar and the programme of guided walks.

Jim Stabler, from the Council, who made the bid for the series of 20 Shropshire War walks:

Many thanks to you and the others for a really wonderful walk, you must have done so much research and I thought you imparted it to us brilliantly! What an amazing man Simon was and what lovely stories, made so much better by having locals on board who told us their own stories, brilliant! I so enjoyed myself!

Statistics: 11 walkers up Titterstone, over 110 visitors to the exhibition etc, 27 walkers on SE Way, 57 at Whalebone, 15 on Abdon Burfday.