TROWBRIDGE'S historic Town Hall hosted a day of creative literature and art to celebrate National Poetry Day, when children worked alongside Town Hall Arts poet in residence Josephine Corcoran.

The event involved poetry writing and illustration, when 33 children from 11 schools across Wiltshire took part, showing off their creative and imaginative talents.

Josephine Corcoran, the first poet in residence to work at Town Hall Arts, oversaw their efforts and was overwhelmed with the turnout and enthusiasm of the children. She said: “Every day is poetry day for me, but National Poetry Day is the perfect opportunity to remind everyone how inspiring poetry can be, and we are so lucky to be able to do it inside this beautiful and historic building.”

She was impressed by their poetic talents, choosing a short poem written by Trowbridge youngster Mollie CHECK and inspired by the Town Hall's history as her favourite piece of work.

Mollie's simple poem read:

This house may be old

But the people in it are bold

It is so magical

Yet fills you with sorrow

For prisoners, soldiers since 1887

The pastor of North Bradley Church, Ben Midgley, worked alongside Josephine, illustrating her poems and some of those written by the children. They were also taught the value of collaborating on each other's’ work, and had a go at illustrating each other’s poems.

The Town Hall was opened in 1889 by HRH The Duchess of Albany, and is being restored and transformed into a centre for arts, culture and heritage in the town.

As part of their visit the children were shown round the current exhibition in the first floor art gallery, where for the second year running 71 pencil drawings chosen for the national Derwent Art Prize are on display, making Trowbridge one of the few places they can be seen outside London.

Last night (Thursday oct 13) Meryl Ainslie, the director of Rabley Drawing Centre and a Derwent Art Prize selector was due to give a talk about this year's entries within the wider range of contemporary drawing perspectives, from the studio to the great outdoors at 7pm, tickets £3.

Entry to the exhibition itself, which runs until November 19, is free and it is open Monday-Friday 10am-4pm, Saturdays 10am-2pm.