Tinker arrives collecting tales
PUPILS and parents at Frosterley Primary school were visited by a tinker recently who is collecting ballads from the coast to coast route.
Tinker the puppet is travelling from Cumbria to Hartlepool collecting songs about the different stops on his route and this week settled in Weardale.
He was created by Ali McCaw, a director of Changeling Productions who are organising the Songlines Coast to Coast project.
Ali said: “We’re working with the children and their parents to create a ballad about Weardale. We could have done some research ourselves but we find talking to local people is much more valuable as they know a lot about their area that isn’t in any books. It’s very important that at each of Tinker’s stops he collects authentic stories from the local community.”
Tinker will also visit Wearhead and Wolsingham to collect verse for the ballad. So far he has discovered that Frosterley church is haunted, there is a group of trees called the elephant trees because of their distinctive shape and that the village was originally called Forestley until many of the trees were chopped down about 200 years ago.
The Weardale ballad will be performed at 7pm at the Durham Dales Centre in Stanhope on Friday, June 26. Tickets cost £3 for adults and £1.50 for children and can be bought on the door.
If you have a story or memory about Weardale that could go in the ballad send it to changelinguk@googlemail.com
