Talented young poets of the future were celebrated at an awards ceremony in memory of one of the city's most famous wordsmiths.

The annual All Bristol's Youngster's Illustrated Poetry Competition is held in memory of the Bristol-born teen poet, Thomas Chatterton.

Chatteron, who died age 17 in 1770, is cited as a major influence on the romantic poets of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Keats and Byron.

More than 170 young poets entered the contest, the only requirements being that they had to be aged between seven and 17 and 277 days, the length of Chatterton's life.

They were asked to produce their own poem under the theme of "What do you love the most?" and create an illustration based on a six stanza extract of one of Chatterton's works.

The awards ceremony was held at the Thistle Hotel, Broad Street on Thursday, with poetry recitals, a string section performance, and a presentation by guest judge Peter Lord, co-founder of Aardman Animations.

Leader of Bristol City Council Helen Holland also attended and handed out the awards.

The top prize was £200 and an 18th century-style portrait, which will go up in March alongside last year's winner at the central Bristol library.

In the secondary category, the winners were Francesca Ffiske, 13, gold; Elizabeth Webb, 13, silver and Isabel Murphy, 13, bronze.

Sam Nelson, 14, and Maria Jones, 13, both received commendations.

Secondary and overall winner Francesca's poem was called Moments.

In the primary category, the winners were Amy Cotter, 10, gold; Scott Matthews, 10, silver and Cara Vaitilingam, 10, bronze.

In the infant category, the winners were Meridith Lloyd, seven, gold and Freya Rolt, six, silver.

Society chairman Michael Doble said: "We had a shortlist of 60 entrants, and they were generally of a higher standard than last year.

"Generally people enjoyed the evening, we want to make it quite different every year and get more people involved."