A NEW poetry trail featuring poems by Ted Hughes is to be created at Stover Country Park near Newton Abbot.

The project put forward by Devon County Council has won the enthusiastic support of Carol Hughes, of North Tawton, widow of the former Poet Laureate.

Devon was home for Ted Hughes for much of his life and the themes of many of his poems reflect the county?s rich and diverse wildlife.

Stover Country Park is run by the county council as a local nature reserve and centre for environmental education.

From summer next year, visitors to Stover will be able to walk through its woodland and lakeside and pause to read 15 of Ted Hughes? poems installed at points along the trail. Six of his children?s poems will also be featured.

Carol Hughes said: ?I wholeheartedly support the idea of a poetry trail at Stover Country Park and am delighted that it will be dedicated to Ted?s verse.

?Ted was passionate about the natural environment and Stover offers a superb setting in which people will be able to experience his poems in the open air.

?I look forward to seeing Devon County Council?s ideas for this as they progress.?

Edward Chorlton, Devon?s county environment director and deputy chief executive, added: ?We are delighted to be creating this unique trail celebrating Ted Hughes? poetry.

?The trail will link poetry to the natural world, and will introduce new people to poetry. It will be a fitting tribute to Ted Hughes in his adopted county of Devon.

?We will be drawing up the trail design in detail later this year with the aim of opening in summer 2005.

?One of our overall aims will be to let the poems speak for themselves in the natural setting of Stover Country Park.

?Visitors, including those with restricted mobility, will be able to discover the power and meaning of Ted Hughes? poems as they follow the trail.?

Development of the poetry trail is receiving grant aid from English Nature?s Wildspace! initiative.

Stover Country Park lies close to the A38 Devon Expressway on the outskirts of Newton Abbot. It has been operated by Devon County Council for 25 years and is open free of charge all year round.

Ted Huges was born in Mytholmroyd in Yorkshire and moved to North Tawton in 1961 with his first wife, the American poet Sylvia Plath, who died in 1963.

Hughes married Carol Orchard in 1970. He was made Poet Laureate in 1984 and died of cancer at the age of 68 in October 1998.