Emily Brontë’s poem ‘Remembrance’ includes: ‘Cold in the earth – and fifteen wild Decembers, From those brown hills, have melted into spring.’ Brownhills is a town in the borough of Walsall, hence the title.

First prize Anne Greenwood and Martin Plews, Horsham, W. Sussex

Runners-up Ian Laming, Chippenham; Neville Twickel, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire