FORMER poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion was inspired by the house that Thomas Hardy built as he paid a visit to Dorchester to launch a writing project.

Sir Andrew attended an event at Max Gate in Dorchester for the launch of the Writing Places project, a partnership project between the National Trust, Literature Works and The Poetry Archive that highlights the link between writer and location in a bid to engage more people with creative reading and writing.

It was the first time Sir Andrew had visited Hardy's home, which is now managed by the National Trust.

He said: "There are some quite local prompts you can actually see in the house and things which appear in his poems.

"I think the most powerful thing for me going round the house and ingesting it is the understanding it allows you to have of the dynamics of his relationship with Emma his first wife in particular."

Sir Andrew said other notable things about the house were how it was almost hidden away and the way that, although Hardy's success had allowed him to move up in the world, he never quite escaped his more humble beginnings.

Director general of the National Trust Dame Helen Ghosh, who also attended the event, said the home at Max Gate was a 'wonderful contrast' to his nearby birthplace at Higher Bockhampton.

She also agreed with Sir Andrew's suggestion that the National Trust needed to do more to 'ventilate' its libraries in some of its many homes linked to writers around the country by allowing greater access to them and said the Writing Places Project was a great way to start doing that.

Dame Helen said: "This project is a wonderful way to start down in the South West celebrating the links between places and writers."

At the launch event Sir Andrew gave a talk and read some of his own works and those by Hardy.

The project will initially focus on four former homes of writers in the South West cared for by the South West.

As well as Max Gate, there will be writers in residence at Coleridge Cottage in Somerset, Agatha Christie's former home at Greenway in Devon and A la Ronde, the house built for journal writers and cousins Jane and Mary Parminter also in Devon.

The scheme hopes to inspire a new generation of writers by getting them to engage with the places where some of the nation's literary greats created their works.

CEO of Literature Works Tracey Guiry said: "It's not just about celebrating the literary heritage of these properties but how they might be used in working with developing and emerging writers.

"There will be masterclasses, events and talks and we are placing writers in residence in each of the properties."

For more information about the project visit nationaltrust.org.uk/writingplaces