A POEM written by a 91-year-old as a tribute to the Faithful City could play a big part in the city's future tourism plans.

Daisy Gelder, who has lived in her Hamilton Road home since she was born, wrote Worcester purely because of her passion for poetry.

But after hearing it at a recent Women's Royal Voluntary Service event the city's mayor, Allah Ditta is set to press tourism bosses to adopt the poem to attract tourists.

He hopes copies will be available for sale as souvenirs on tea towels and postcards.

Daisy, who wrote the poem 10 years ago in 1995, said: "I just wrote it for my own pleasure.

"I had a visitor here from Yorkshire who loved Worcester and suggested I write about it.

"All my family used to come down here because they thought Worcester was wonderful."

The poem describes the city's cathedral bells and the swans on the River Severn.

One of the verses reads:

I love our Faithful City

Tho' some may mock or scorn

I wouldn't want to live elsewhere

Than the town where I was born.

Councillor Ditta has described the poem as "an incredible piece of work from a remarkable lady."

"The sincerity of its sentiments and the genuineness in its affection for the City is an amazing achievement deserving the widest possible levels of recognition," he said.

Daisy's parents William and Susan Corbett moved into their house, near the city centre, in 1901.

Daisy, who worked in the city's Co-op shoe department for 26 years, continued to live there after she married Yorkshireman William Gelder, who died in 1980.

Worcester is just one of several poems she has written that have impressed the mayor, others include Home Sweet Home, The March of Time and A True Romance.

VISITORS TO WORCESTER

By Daisy Gelder

Worcester is a popular place

To visit every year

To see the Cathedral in its splendour

And hear its bells so loud and clear.

For the musically minded

A Three Choirs Festival is held

When hosts of angelic voices

Uplift in praise to God.

Royal Porcelain's fine china

In showrooms richly set

While Lea and Perrins Worcester sauce

Keep its secret recipe yet.

If your interest is in history

The Commandery is the place

War models portraying torture

Or meeting King Charles face to face.

Seated high upon his charger

Surrounded by friend and foe

Guns and cannons rend the air

Mock battles on the go.

Cygnets and swans on the river

There must be a hundred or more

While over the tannoy loudly

Comes the latest cricket score.

Filled with holidaymakers

The steamers drift steadily by

Seeing views from a different angle

As out of the decks they lie.

It's a different story in winter

When floods sweep all in their wake

Roads and traffic disrupted

And swans think they're on a lake.

At CrownGate shopping centre

For the ladies just the ticket -

To browse around at leisure

While the menfolk go to cricket.

Or maybe there are racing fans

Over the sticks or flat

And if they win "It's a good day out"

For giving themselves a pat.

Of St Andrew's Church, the spire remains

Leaning o'er colourful gardens,

Plenty of seats to admire the scene

Or to check their shopping bargains.

Take a leisurely stroll by the river

In the cool of a summer's eve,

Families enjoying a quiet hour,

And couples their dreams can weave.

With such glimpses of our City

Panned by an amateur poet

Before time runs out on your holiday

You'll be hooked before you know it.

I love our Faithful City,

Tho' some may laugh or scorn

I wouldn't want to live elsewhere

Than the town where I was born.