AN OLD typewriter in Beaminster Museum inspired a schoolgirl to write a prize-winning poem.

Ten-year-old Choka Ayunga, pictured with her parents and the typewriter, was presented with the first prize for the museum’s Junior Literary Competition, for her poem entitled The Typewriter That Hides Upstairs.

The prize of a £20 book token and signed copy of The Palace Library by local author Steven Loveridge was presented by Christophe Dupuy, another local children’s author who writes about Ruby the Routemaster.

Choka’s poem now enjoys pride of place in the museum alongside the artefact – an early 20th century LC Smith & Corona typewriter – that inspired her poem.