NINE-year-old Sam Openshaw is known as the . . . Pillbox Poet!

He was among the pupils at Eagley Junior School who were moved to put pen to paper during field trips to historic sites in the Bolton area.

And now they are entering their poems in a national competition, which is being run by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

The eight and nine-year-olds impressed class teacher Anne Lloyd with their imaginative work and she is keen to show the London judges that the North-west boasts just as many interesting old buildings as the south of England.

She particularly liked the poem "The Look-Out Post", by young Sam, which he wrote after the pupils visited the Second World War pillbox at Turton. The pillbox bunker was used by the home guard in case of a German invasion and is a well known landmark in Turton.

Other historic buildings and locations that the children wrote poems about included Turton Tower, Hall i' th' Wood and Rivington Pike.

Mrs Lloyd said: "The whole class came up with brilliant poems.

"They have been working ever so hard recently, so over the Bank Holiday I wanted them to relax a little and get out and about to look at old buildings -- and they really seem to have been inspired."

THE LOOK-OUT POST

By Sam Openshaw

There it was built,

There it still stands,

A sleeping snake coiled up in a mound.

Bright sun shining on dark grey,

I can hear the wartime gunshots.

Souls of slumbering soldiers still there today,

Small square windows,

Rough under my trembling fingers.

I tiptoe through the gate and leave.

There is stands lonely forever.