DOWN HATHERLEY POETRY COMPETITION JULY 8th 2008 AT FUN DAY

A rhyme about Down Hatherley and Up Hatherley
By the late E.R.P. Berrman Esq

UP  HATHERLEY AND  DOWN HATHERLEY

There are two little villages close to the town,
One of ‘em’s Up and the other one’s Down;
And once on a time a sprite, so they say,
Used to tell people wrong when asking the way.
                               Hitherley-hatherley
                                   Ditherley-Datherley
  Mind who you ask when you’re asking the way!

You’d meet an old fellow all wrinkled and brown
And ask him the best way to Hatherley (Down),
And later you’d know that he’d sold you a pup
For you’d find yourself making for Hatherley (Up).

Or perhaps ’twould be dressed in another disguise,
A charming young lady with pretty blue eyes,
And she’d smilingly say to a stranger from town
“That’s the way to Up Hatherley, pointing to Down.

All this of course happened a long time ago
And you ask if it’s true, well, I really don’t know.
But such things don’t happen to people to-day
For lovely white sign-posts will show them the way.
                              Hitherley-hatherley,
                                  Ditherley-datherley
      Mind who you ask when you’re asking the way !
         

from:
NURSERY RHYMES of GLOUCESTERSHIRE
By E.R.P. Berryman
Reproduced with kind permission from the copyright holder: ‘Hop, Skip & Jump’ – Cotswold Play and Support Centre for Special Needs Children, Severn Springs.