There was a shop on the corner where  one could buy individual cigarettes and I remember going there, and feeling a desire to be grown up enough to buy one for myself. It’s no longer a shop – it’s become a grooming parlour for dogs. 

Then there are the ruins of the church and the school house. The latter was burned down by some idiot in the 90s and at the time it was thought that the owners had done it for the insurance. Remarkably, 50 years on and it’s still derelict.

Have I told you the one about …..

Wherever you turn there’s a story to be told about all the places, buildings and views around us and for our latest writing competition, that’s what we asked people to write about, for which we received stories from Australia to the Hebrides, and from Edinburgh to Greece.

They not only offer an insight into the history of the location but also reveal something of the writer too.

We had the help of half a dozen experts who volunteered to be our writing competition judges and between them they narrowed down entries to a shortlist of 13. We are delighted to announce the shortlisted pieces and their authors here.

• Still Standing: Dandaloo Church by Sharon Bonthuys
• Chances by Christopher Cuninghame
• Carrying the Trees to Clark Park by Ann de Forest
• Little Forest by Jamie Derkenne
• The Monument Woman by Dan Harwood
• East Hynish Lighthouse Cottages by Peter Isaacson
• The Tears of Aphrodite Euploia by Georgia Mavroudi
• Cherry by Conchita Navarro Saez
• The Sycamore on my street by Emma Pavans de Ceccatty
• Dead Heart of the MIA by Jason Richardson
• Time less by Arthur Sparrow
• Birds of Passage at Bradwell by Richard Westcott
• Howmore Church: A Pilgrimage by Vanessa Wright

Follow this link to read each of the stories in the Neighbourhood Narratives shortlist, and try to pick the winners. They will be announced on Sunday 6 May. We received support for the prizes and in running the competition, from Orana Arts  in New South Wales, Australia, Bathscape Landscape partnership from Bath, UK and the Urban Tree Festival.

Our competition was run in association with Placecloud, the home for geolocated audio stories called ‘Viewpoints’. It gives anyone the opportunity of recording stories about their neighbourhood, all the places around where they live (you can add your own too).

From the 13 shortlisted stories we’ve identified as many as eight or nine, that will make excellent Viewpoints on Placecloud and in addition, there are many other submissions to the competition that didn’t make the shortlist, for which we hope their authors will be happy for them to become Viewpoints too.