The library manager at Melbourn Village College has won Royston Arts Festival's poetry competition with a poem inspired by the town's geological history.

Hilary Forrester won in the 19-plus age category on the theme of 'circle of life'.

For her poem, Hilary took inspiration from Royston's chalk bedrock, which is made of the circular shells of microscopic marine creatures. The poem also referenced the town's history.

On Saturday, local poets and judges J. S. Watts and Jude Simpson presented Hilary with her prize - a £50 book token for David's Books in Letchworth.

The judges said: "We liked the choice of subject, which was both local and unique to Royston, and embraced the theme of the circle of life."

Half of the entries in the 18-and-under category came from Melbourn students. Year Eight students at the college are also having their short stories published in a young writers collection in November.

Chalk
by Hilary Forrester

White is the bed on which our landscape rests,
Formed from the shells that time preserved as chalk.
Aquifer store in which the rain collects,
Filling the springs that feed the river course.

Former of flint, for fire, axe and arrow,
Shelter the follower, in hollowed cave,
Feeder of fields, for plough, hoe and harrow,
Went the Knights Templars to, fight the Crusades.

Latitude locus, Meridian Line,
Ancient the highway from Salisbury Plain.
Crossed by the marker, of Greenwich mean time,
Footprints of Romans and royalty remain.

Gentle the hills topped with heathland and trees,
Abundant with wildlife, calling it home.
The traveller here is easily pleased,
To pause for a while, near Roysia’s stone.

What mark is left, on your pale crust, as the
Surface inhabitants, dance in the light.
Cradled by chalk, we play our part, in the
Foraminiferous, circle of life.