Today's Guardian Country Diary is an account of a walk around the Durham market town of Crook on a snowy morning, ending at the village of Fir Tree at the Pea Hill Community Park, which was opened last year. The park is graced by this wooden statue of two drift miners.... one young, the other old, standing shoulder-to-shoulder.
Coal seams around Crook lie close to the surface and outcrop on hillsides, so drift miners chased the seams underground from the point where they outcropped. The Crook community was founded on coal but all the mines had closed down by the end of the 1960s.
The statue and these carved wooden bench ends are the work of tree sculptor Tommy Craggs, who performs his artistry with a chainsaw on naturally fallen trees.
This seating area in the park is surrounded with a shelter of woven willow ....
.... with willow figures behind ....
..... and a woven willow tunnel for kids to explore.
On the day when we visited the willow was already producing silvery catkins ....
... that were coming into flower despite the cold snap.
For kids it's a great spot to play and for the less energetic it's an ideal place to take in the view of snow covered Weardale.
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