Michael Drayton - Poet Laureate ?

Michael Drayton was an Elizabethan poet. He was a contemporary and quite probably a friend of William Shakespeare. His poems gained enough recognition for some degree of royal patronage in the reign of James I. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

He was born in Chapel Cottage, which used to stand in the centre of Hartshill Green. He spent his younger days in Hartshill and North Warwickshire and the local countryside became the inspiration for much of his poetry. His 'Polyolbion' describes the variety of our countryside and at 15 000 lines is one of the longest poems ever written.

On Hartshill Green there was a memorial to Michael Drayton, dedicated by Sir John Betjeman. The shelter was constructed in the form of a scroll, the oak beam above the memorial is now on display in the courtyard at school. His name was further perpetuated when Hartshill Middle School was renamed Michael Drayton Middle School in 1977.