14 February 2026
The 2026 ceremony, signalled by a Queen of Hearts rocket at 5.30pm, started with the gathering crowd being serenaded by accordionist Tom Woolman and the Selwood Bounds musicians, with the Selwood Bounds morris dancers. At 6pm the town crier, Martin Scott, spoke of love. Four poems were read. Eddie Young, the new lamplighter, said a few words and lit the lamp.
The mayor, Anita Collier, thanked everyone and presented Reg Ling with a specially commissioned painting, Reg Lights the Way, by Paul ‘Mutartis’ Boswell. Mulled wine and hot berry juice were served. The weather was dry and mild. The crowd dispersed happy and full of love.
Poems read aloud
Lover’s Lament
Love barged into my life in muddy boots.
‘You’re not on the list, you can’t come in,’ I said
and Love just laughed, strode in anyway,
blundering through my pristine solitude,
stuck its feet under my table, chucked its socks
beneath my bed, left a ring around the bath
and didn’t even care. I tell you, love sucks.
Impudent as an alley cat, bold as a busker,
Love is a brazen thief. Stole from under my nose
my precious hoard of loneliness.
Written by Crysse Morrison and read by Jane Hughes
Lamplighter, Lamplighter
Lamplighter, lamplighter, light me a lamp
give me a guide through the dark and the damp
I’ll give you a light, but what you see
depends on you and not on me
When two people meet in the lamplight’s ring
will they both be looking for the same thing?
Under the lamplight, on the empty street,
see each other clearly, and really meet?
What does each one bring, that they’ve seen before?
Want the same, or different, or something more?
To want and to wish are different demands,
and only the second is in your hands,
To change yourself, as your partner does too,
combining to be something joined and new.
Written and read by Mike Rogers
No Birds Sing
No birds sing
As you walk by.
They hardly even tweet.
No flowers abound
On barren ground
Where you have set your feet.
The sea won’t freeze.
The sun won’t dim.
For you no eagles soar,
And yet, to me,
My precious love,
You’re everything.
And more.
Written and read by Caroline Rose
On Valentine’s Night
The Valentine Lamp thought deeply, while gazing at the stars,
‘Are there other lamps like me on Jupiter or Mars?
Do they light the way for lovers, embracing young and old,
ignite the fires of passion, warm hearts that have turned cold?
In those spangled heavens would they shine as bright as me,
caught in sparkling stardust for all in love to see?’
And in that cobbled night as she shone her glowing light,
a beacon on the hill above Frome’s velvet night,
she wished upon a star which fell from far above,
that all who were alone should receive the gift of love,
and all those sad and lost should find the warmth of bliss,
and feel the hug of happiness with the touch of a sweet kiss.
Written and read by Roz Dace