Ref. 27931/1A CHANCE meeting at the West Wilts show has led to 15 girls from Belarus getting a pottery master class in Westbury.

Chernobyl Children Life Line chairman Henry Leigh was looking round the Westbury tent at last year's event when he came across potter Trevor Pictor's stall.

The charity has been arranging for children affected by the nuclear disaster to come to the Westbury area for a number of years. And during this time volunteers have not always found it easy to organise activities for the youngsters during the winter months.

But when Mr Pictor, who runs White Horse Pottery, heard about the children's visits he was only too happy to give them a lesson at his Newtown studio. Seven of the group visited on Tuesday while the remaining eight seven to nine-year-olds dropped in on Wednesday to try their hand at pot-throwing.

Mr Leigh said: "He really put on an entertaining afternoon for them, they absolutely loved it.

"We bring the children here for respite and try to give them a holiday of a lifetime. When they come over they tend to have quite a grey complexion. But they've been here for a week-and-a-half now and have started to get shiny hair and more colour in their faces."

Yesterday the youngsters visited Clark's Village, in Somerset, where each was give a new pair of shoes and on Monday the group will sing Happy Birthday to the mayor of Bath.