Congratulations to the three winners of our
2010/11 writing competition

Winner:

William Johnson Aged 12 from Derbyshire  suggested Chatsworth House, the grand home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire  would be a good setting for a Time Traveller story.

Joint second:

Ben Dempsey Aged 8 from Cheshire  suggested Styal Mill a former cotton mill.

Shama Begum Aged 13 from Brighton suggested Preston Manor, known as Britain’s most haunted house.

William, Ben and Shama were winners because they researched the history of their chosen setting and sent in a written piece that was well presented, grammatically accurate and fascinating to read. All three places will be the setting for a new book in our Time Traveller series.

WATCH OUT for our next writing competition for the Time Traveller series and perhaps you will be another winner!

Extracts from winning Entries Writing Competition 2011

Chatsworth House by William Johnson

‘…It is a very interesting place to visit and Danny could explore the house and all the gardens too. There has been a house there for a long time and the building is very beautiful.’

‘…There are lots of times that I could choose for the story, but I have chosen 1558. In this year Lord Shrewsbury was given the custody of Mary Queen of Scots. He took her to live at Chatsworth House. She stayed in an apartment that’s now called the Queen of Scots Lodgings…Danny could meet her and she could tell him all about her life…Her life would have been very different to ours, so I think readers would find that interesting. Danny would have to be very polite, but Mary might like to have an ordinary friend that she could talk to and play with. She would have been about sixteen years old in 1558. They could walk around and have a great game of hide and seek in the gardens!’

Styal Mill by Ben Dempsy

 ‘I think that Styal Mill, Cheshire is a good place for Danny Higgins to visit. It is set in the 1830’s and is an industrial powered water mill…Danny would be given as an apprentice to the Gregg family to work in the cotton mill. When he arrived at the mill he would be taken to the Apprentice House and first he would be shown the dormitories. The dorms were smelly and small. The beds were made out of straw. The toilet was only a pot and the toilet paper was straw as well…’

‘…The mill was really very noisy…The power was so powerful that people’s fingers got chopped off and the machines still worked with lots of fingers stuck in them.’

Preston Manor by Shama Begum

‘Preston Manor would be the perfect spot for Danny to go and explore, it would add a lot of thrill to the story, as it is known as Britain’s most haunted house. A number of ghost sightings have been claimed in the 19th century…including a grey-clad woman, a blonde who revealed herself to be an excommunicated nun, a floating hand and a toy tractor-riding phantom!’