Cheshire Life/CPRE Cheshire - 2008 Writing Competition
CPRE Cheshire Peter Raynes presenting certificates to Callum Fryer and Madeline Travers of Prestbury CE Primary School
We were delighted with the response to our 2008 writing contest, and the judges (Lord Grey of Codnor, Andrew Miller MP and Cheshire Life's editor, Louise Taylor) found it very difficult to select a winner as the overall standard of entries was so high.
The winners were as follows:
Under 18 category:
Winner – Callum Fryer, Prestbury CE Primary School
Runner up – Serena Grace, Malpas
Highly Commended – Madeline Travers, Prestbury CE Primary School
Adults:
Winner – Elizabeth Lloyd, Congleton
Runner up – Mrs Pauline Temple, Lymm
Highly Commended – Sarah Egerton, Nantwich
Cliff Lomas, Macclesfield
Certificate of Merit – Doreen A. Ellison, Warrington
Theresa M. Carrier, Davenham
The winning articles are below:
Under 18 winning article – Callum Fryer, Tytherington
What Cheshire means to me
Cheshire means to me going for bike rides in the lovely countryside.
Cheshire has everything from adventurous forest to wild sea, mysterious caves to rolling hills and calming old villages and towns with delicious local food.
My favourite part is Tytherington because it is my home. You can go for easy bike rides along the Middlewood Way and at Farmfields. You can do loads of exciting activities like tennis, swimming, golf and basketball. Tytherington has a thriving community with a bonfire, new years eve party and fireworks. Other things I enjoy doing in Cheshire are sledging on the hills and playing with my friends outside where I live.
In 20 years time there will be more houses, less calming countryside and more cars. I'd like to keep the houses we've got now, the places I can ride my bike and the animals in the fields. I'd like to see less cars and a different power source for cars to help save the environment.
Over 18 winning article – Elizabeth Lloyd, Congleton
Cheshire Born
“Cheshire born, Cheshire bred, strong in the arm and wick in the head,” not weak as we wrongly chanted as children, but wick, meaning quick or alive! What a heritage of health and “wickness” is ours who have been born and live in Cheshire.
Looking down at the Cheshire Plain from Bosley Cloud, I see Cheshire as a piece of beautiful jewellery, inset with the sapphires of its meres and canals, and the River Dane winding its way to the Irish Sea. Here lies a sea of green, in shades of emerald, jade, onyx and olivine stretching as far as Wales and the Malvern Hills. Up here on the Pennine moorland, amethyst heather mingles with rubies of rowan and silver birch, and in Spring, a haze of lapiz lazuli adorns bluebell woods: all this in a setting of golden suns and silver rains.
I look down on Cheshire's black and white elegance, its dairy cows, traditional roadside railings and black and white timbered buildings. Here I can look into Derbyshire, Shropshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire and Wales. I can look down on buzzards and hear skylarks. I can also see Jodrell Bank's pearly-white disc among the greens, searching for songs of the universe.
This priceless jewel is irreplaceable. It is our inheritance. It is England's jewel in the crown, so, “Cheshire born, Cheshire bred, ...” let's use that famous muscle and “wickness” to keep it sparkling for generations to come.