2018 Milford Writers' Retreat

We held our first Milford Writers' Retreat at Trigonos, from 25th February to 3rd March 2018.
No critiquing sessions just time to write without interruption. There were six of us and all agreed it was an immensely productive week - despite being caught in the worst weather in Wales for 30 years.

Left to right: Heather Lindsley, Rory Newman, Jacey Bedford (front), Nick Fowler (back)
David Allen, Jackie Hatton.

Despite the worst weather in Wales for thirty years the general consensus is that the first Milford Writing Retreat was a success. People are already up for doing it again next year. Everyone was very positive about the benefits of being able to get on with working at their own pace while still having other writers around at mealtimes and coffee breaks for writerly talk and encouragement. It was a no-pressure week that offered huge opportunities to use the time productively. 

We arrived in bright, sunny weather on the Sunday, but by Tuesday the first snow had started to fall. The snow wasn't so bad, but when the wind whipped up to gale force and began to blow a hooligan we simply had to accept the fact that we were in 'hunker down' mode. The news was starting to call it The Beast From the East. This, of course, was no bad thing because we'd come to write.

We thought the worst was over when the wind let up for a few hours on Thursday and the snow came out but Friday, as forecast, socked in again.

Trigonos looked after us extremely well despite their being a couple of days when staff who lived outside the village couldn't get in to work because of the weather conditions and trees down across the road. Even in a howling gale, though, the scenery was superb. Between the first and second snows we had the occasional burst of sunlight that lit up the mountain.

We had a cheery open fire in the library every evening. Rory and I looked as though we might have trouble getting home since all the Pennine passes were closed for several days, but they reopened the M62 in the nick of time. (Woodhead and Snake Pass were still closed.) Remarkably the trains and planes were also still operational, so everyone got home safely.

Will we repeat the experience? Yes, but maybe not in February.