TAVISTOCK Subscription Library is launching a writing competition at the start of the autumn term in 2013 for secondary school pupils in the Tavistock area.

The aim is to encourage young people to research and write about local matters of current or historical interest and to get more young people interested in the library.

There will be some great prizes with the winning article to be published in the Tavistock Diary, February 2014 and the library newsletter.

The prize winner will also be given a year's free membership of the library and £100 to be spent on books, an appropriate literary-related online programme or Kindle book.

There are also two prizes of £50 and £25 to be spent as above.

Tavistock Subscription Library, housed in the corner of Guildhall Square in Tavistock next to the town's museum, was founded in 1799 by a group of men, including John Taylor, a 19-year-old engineer from Norwich who had come to the town to manage a local copper and tin mine. It was he who built the Tavistock Canal at the beginning of the 19th century.

n Entries to the competition are invited from pupils in fulltime education, aged 11 to 18 years, living in the Tavistock area and including those who attend local or  nearby secondary schools

n Each entry would be looked at on its own merits and account will be taken about the age of the author and that it fulfils the 'catchment' condition

n The written article would be approximately 700 words of factual writing and not poetry or fiction

n It must be the original work of the pupil and the title of the work will be 'The Tavistock Area'. This is to allow the subject to be as wide as possible and must relate to Tavistock and surroundings whether that be historical, industrial, Dartmoor, agricultural, scientific or other aspects of Tavistock.

The closing date for entries will be December 31 and entries and further details are at http://www.tavistocksubscriptionlibrary.co.uk">www.tavistocksubscriptionlibrary.co.uk