MINI-poems and sonnets from junior wordsmiths across East Lancashire are now adorning buses travelling across the county and beyond.

Earlier this year primary school pupils were set a task, by public transport operator Transdev, to devise their own poems to go on display across their Mainline services.

And would-be Wordsworths and budding Byrons took on the challenge, run in association with Mid Pennine Arts (MPA), to produce some thought-provoking work.

Pieces of poetry from schools in Accrington, Clitheroe, Burnley, Pendle and Todmorden have now been plastered on hoardings inside the buses.

Subjects range from the supreme sacrifice made by the Accrington Pals in the First World War to the splendour of Burnley’s Towneley Park.

Daniel Barnes, aged 10, of Benjamin Hargreaves Primary School in Accrington, was moved to write ‘War Memorial’ after visiting Oakhill Park.

His poem reads: ‘I stand on parade in Oakhill Park, brave soldiers are a part of me, I am the past, I am the present, and the future’.

And eight-year-old Brendan Monk, of Trawden Forest Primary School, is included for his effort ‘Dragon’.

It reads: ‘Fire-breather, meat-muncher, wing-spreader, blood-drinker, flesh-ripper, human-trapper, fire-spitter, dragon-scale’.

David Smith, MPA spokesman, said: “Each month more than 300,000 passengers will be able to read the children’s work.”

Inspiration for the initiative came from the poems which have decorated the London Underground for the past 25 years.

The scheme for Mainline buses was launched by poet Terry Caffrey and youngsters at St John Southworth RC Primary last April.