Swifts Hill

by Lisa Fitzgibbon

Inspired by the landscape, legends and characters made famous in Laurie Lee’s book Cider with Rosie

“A Great Ancestral Hump” - Laurie Lee

Swifts Hill is the ‘Great Ancestral Hump’ that overlooks the Slad Valley, down to the Gloucestershire market town of Stroud, beyond to the Severn Estuary and on a clear day, from the top, you can see as far as Wales.

Managed by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, the limestone grassland on the steep slopes of Swift’s Hill supports more than 130 species of wildflowers, & 13 different orchids, including rare frog, bee, early purple and autumn lady’s-tresses.
Knapweed, wild thyme and white helleborine support butterflies such as marbled white and common blue, two of 29 species of this insect recorded here.
Birds to look and listen out for include kestrel, skylark, swift and green woodpecker.

I will write a section of this song for each season, influenced by the view from this lookout and documenting the wheel of time as it turns from one to the next.

SPRING

Vlog 01 - Swift’s Hill

Swifts Hill - Spring lyrics

Follow me ‘cross field & wold, see the landscape unfurl, watch the valley unfold
As we climb our way upon Swifts Hill
To the song of this ‘April Rise’
And the call of the swifts flying home fills the skies

Soapy green grows over the valley, awakening beechwood & bell
As dawn lends a hand to the call of the lamb
The chorus reminds us the sunrise behind thaws the chill
And spins the seasons wheel to SPRINGTIME on Swifts Hill

SPRING is a beautiful thing up on top of the world
From the peak of Swifts Hill looking west-wards I feel
I could fly through the haze to the mountains of Wales
As the west wind whispers her promise of long days fulfilled
She spins the seasons wheel to SUMMER on Swifts Hill

SUMMER

Swifts Hill - Summer lyrics

Follow me up old Knapp Lane, feel the sun on our backs
Hear the larks call our names
When the morning sun shines on Swifts Hill
The ghosts of past SUMMERS rise
From this ancestral hump we can look out for miles.

SUMMER green grows over the valley, billowing ‘tween
beechwood & field
Wild rose and thyme grow on grasslands of lime
As we lay on our backs staring up at the world standing still
The season spins its wheel to SUMMER on Swifts Hill

When SUMMER returns to Slad Valley at last
With billowing hedgerows, oak, larch and ash
Rattling thistles and bubbling grass
All tell a tale of the longs SUMMERS past
As the sun sets its view to the top of Swifts Hill once again
The long, warm days draw in as the wheel to AUTUMN spins

AUTUMN

Swifts Hill - Autumn lyrics

Fallow dear and pheasant range through copper cloaked valleys and golden swathed lanes
As the beechwood turns towards Swifts Hill
See the gold rush of AUTUMNS thread
As it winds down the valley the sun low’s it’s head

The sun recedes and the days draw slowly, gilded leaves spread forth & beyond
The hawthorn stoops as she bows with the fruit
Standing cold in decline as the first frost reminds her to yield
A rising mist reveals AUTUMN on Swifts Hill

Slow comes the whisper of AUTUMN adrift on the air
It slackens its grip as the rose turns to hip
And withdraws like the sated wasp falls from the pear
As the badgers are plotting their harvest of woodland and weald
So spins the seasons wheel to WINTER on Swifts Hill

WINTER

Swifts Hill - Winter lyrics

Hallowed be this WINTERS prayer, the badgers are hungry, the fruit trees are bare
As the yule-tide moon hangs ov’r Swifts Hill
Hear the owl sing his lullaby
Through the beechwood that’s stripped like great cracks in the sky

Time concedes to long winter evenings, northern wind cuts like a knife
But the Slad Brook defies, moving under the ice
Flowing down through the valley like threads wound round farmland and field
Time stands frozen still, as snow falls on Swifts Hill

Awoken by church bells to morning covered in snow
Sledges and snow fights and screams of delight
Ring down in the valley all covered in white
Slow afternoons sat by hearth in the Woolpack Saloon
The fiddle plays the tune, that bids long days return
So spins the seasons wheel to SPRINGTIME on Swifts Hill

So follow me cross field and wold
See the landscape unfurl, watch the valley unfold
As we climb our way upon Swifts Hill
And the sound as the season spins… is the calls of the swifts flying home for the spring…

Swifts Hill

Performed by Lisa Fitzgibbon and the PowerFolk Quartet, live at the Stroud Arts Festival in October 2022
with oration by Adam Horovitz

Listen up.

Here is where you can listen to my pre-production demo’s of Swifts Hill.

These demo’s were written and recorded at my home studio in Stroud & are a work-in-progress presentation, designed to reveal the journey of the writing & recording process as the song progresses.

I plan to record and produce these songs to a higher specification in the future, ready for commercial release, and you can track the evolution of these songs here on the website.