OTLEY'S Town Poet has written a special piece of verse in honour of Thomas Chippendale.

Matthew Hedley Stoppard composed Thomas Carved Our Town in memory of the master cabinet maker and furniture designer, who was born in Otley 300 years ago.

It supports a whole programme of local events that have been organised by Visit Otley - including talks, concerts and an antique fair - to celebrate Chippendale's tercentenary.

Mr Stoppard recited the new poem (see below) in front of residents and councillors at the end of the Town Council's AGM on Monday, May 14.

For full details of the Celebrating Chippendale festival visit www.visitotley.co.uk .

Thomas Carved Our Town

Open the wardrobe as wide as it goes

and let light cover streets and farmland.

A man walks his dog and throws it a stick

a chair-leg when freed from his hand.

Lampposts stand like balusters

along a terrace row of dolls' houses,

children play skittles, clogs on the cobbles

sparrows clatter like old coat-hangers

Lovers hold each other in a wood-vice grip

lips red as the head on a match

the sawdust Wharfe spills over the weir

near the bridge and the wooden church.

A young wooden mother goes into labour

and gives birth to Russian dolls,

her proud father carefully shaves his chin

then slaps varnish on his wainscot jowls

Friends share a pint of mahogany ale

their wits as sharp as a chisel;

one starts to sing, another purses his lips

and plays a tune like a penny whistle.

We clothes-peg people, we toothpick folk

thank our maker for his work everyday;

he carved each heartbeat, dovetailed our joints,

he sandpapered the hate away.

For full details of the Celebrating Chippendale festival visit www.visitotley.co.uk .