Simon Armitage was awarded the freedom of Kirklees this week in a ceremony at Huddersfield town hall. The poet laureate – pictured with Kirklees mayor, councillor Nosheen Dad - grew up in the West Yorkshire Pennine village of Marsden, and now lives in Honley. On receiving the award he said: “WH Auden said that it was every poet’s hope to be like some valley cheese, local, but prized elsewhere. But as a poet who has stayed loyal to the area where I was born and brought up I’ve always valued the support and encouragement of my home town and region. To give it a Yorkshire context, more like a decent pie, maybe, appreciated in the wider world but recognised for its local flavours.”

Simon Armitage has written a number of poems about Marsden, which were collected in the volume Magnetic Field a few years ago. In the introduction to the collection he said: “Marsden is the last village in the Colne valley as it climbs westward from the former textile town of Huddersfield into the West Yorkshire Pennines.”

Talking about the view from his bedroom window, he added: “I associate my first poetic experiences with that the view from that bedroom window, especially the view at night, dreaming, with my eyes wide open when I should have been asleep. I’d watch the streetlamps blink into action, the shutters and blinds go down in the shops at the top of Fall Lane, and headlamps illuminate distant lanes and gable ends.”  

Historically, Freemen enjoyed privileges such as driving a flock of sheep through a town centre but the Kirklees honour is purely ceremonial. The poet laureate suggested that some new perks could be introduced, such as free car parking.

At an extraordinary council meeting earlier this year, councillors also approved Honorary Freeman status for volunteer and fundraiser Mrs Joan Gorton, and Hollywood actor Sir Patrick Stewart, who appeared at this week’s ceremony via video link.