POETRY in Bromsgrove has suffered a loss as the town's best kept secret, Geoffrey Hill, has died at the age of 84.

Regarded as one of the most important poets of the 20th century, the news of Mr Hill's death was announced by his wife, Alice Goodman, on Twitter, on Friday, July 1.

She said: "Please pray for the repose of the soul of my husband, Geoffrey Hill, who died yesterday evening, suddenly, and without pain or dread."

Mr Hill was born in Bromsgrove and brought up in Fairfield where his father was village policeman.

His grandmother toiled as a nailer, making hand-made nails, at Lickey End and in his early work, he wrote a tribute to her memory and how her childhood and prime womanhood were spent in a nailshop at the back of a cottage.

The meanings of his poems are not easily accessible but increasingly in latter years they have harked back to his childhood and to Bromsgrove.

Worcestershire poet Sarah James paid tribute to the poet that inspired many of her works.

She said: "I'm not a Geoffrey Hill scholar, as such, but found his Mercian Hymns incredibly inspiring. I've had poems influenced by this sequence published in Schooldays (Paper Swan Press) and The Curly Mind. And I've another unpublished piece that was inspired by an interview with him in The Paris Review. His use of history and language has really made me think hard about the possibilities of sentence structure, juxtaposition and word play in my own writing style."

For more information on Mr Hill, a selection of his works are in Three Bromsgrove Poets - Geoffrey Hill, Molly Holden, A E Housman published by the Housman Society. This book is available direct from the society or Waterstones.