Squirrel And The Milkmaid
Art In Durham, County Durham
Attractive murals back to back on a brick wall in a former cemetery now a small park in Durham.

When visiting Durham City, it is quite nice to park near St Oswald church and walk in. The area has quite a few finds and one is some lovely work of Lewis Hobson AKA Durham Spray Paints in the St Oswald play area called The Squirrel.

The Squirrel is a delightful mural of a Red Squirrel with a cute button nose. The tufted ears are more prominent in winter and this is an early autumn setting with acorns which they don't eat.
The local residential group requested a Red Squirrel as Lewis explained they said there used to be red squirrels in the area. Sadly, now their numbers are in decline.
Red Squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) were quite widespread in 1945, but now their territory is mainly confined to the North of England and Scotland Life expectancy in the wild is about 3 years. Their colour can range from wheaten to ginger and dark brown.
Lewis gives Mr. Squirrel 'muddy' hues as he said it is a football wall and he bid the children to continue to use it as such, so marks would not sully the artwork.
Did you know squirrels have an excellent sense of smell such they can smell sustenance under a foot of snow and can sense rotten nuts without opening them?
The greens of the oak are a pleasing contrasting match to the subtle hues of Mr. Squirrel.
The artist has signed this work with his trademark Durham Spray Paints. He is well known in the area for works such as Canary at Wheatley Hill and there are many murals to be seen at the Headland Hartlepool.
As this is an old cemetery, there is a notable grave of John Bacchus Dykes (1823 to 1876) who was the Vicar of St Oswald from 1862. Being a gifted musician he played the organ at his grandfather's church from the age of ten. (I thank Lewis for drawing my attention to this, he was told by one of the resident committee members). The vicar wrote over 300 hymns.

Now, make sure you look around the back of this one as there is the Milkmaid from the Durham Cow myth. I missed it on my first visit!

Notice the milkmaid's gaze, Lewis gave her an annoyed look as he said she was probably fed up with monks asking about the town when she was looking for her dun cow. And they would have been speaking Latin?

The artwork is worthy of any gallery and a lot of detail has gone into these gems.

In this area there is more you can explore, have a look on the Fabulous North map and enjoy.
Get 2 points if you have visited this place. Already visited by 6 VIPs.
Login to the VIP area to add places to your bucket list, mark them as visited and more importantly see where you rank on the league table.
How To Find Squirrel And The Milkmaid
Where Is Squirrel And The Milkmaid?
Show Place On Google MapsLat / Long
54.770496, -1.571338
What three words
Where To Park For Squirrel And The Milkmaid?
Metered street parking available on Church Street outside the park, or down side roads (still metered).
Contributed by Rosalind Parker
Thanks for reading through and getting to the end of this post. I enjoy exploring the Fabulous North (Especially as a Southerner residing up North). I like 'snippets' of information, and more so, if they are obscure, amusing or meaningful. The photographs are taken on a mobile phone, without any enhancements.
More Places from Rosalind
More Places In Durham
Find more fabulous places in Durham, County Durham and if you know of a place we haven't listed, then let us know.

Work, Rest, Pray Painting At Sherburn Village Community Centre
Art Durham County DurhamAn outstanding painting at Sheburn Village by Jordan Stead AKA Twenty Six Studio. It has become the pride of the village.

Analemmatic Sundial At Durham University
Art Durham County DurhamAn art/science installation involving audience participation and sunshine.

Heritage Blues (The Pitman)
Statue Durham County DurhamA Miner kneeling testing the air with his safety lamp, by Ray Lonsdale.
More Art
So this art wasn't enough and you want more? Don't worry we have you covered.

Iron Man
Art Newcastle City Centre Tyne And WearA puppet of the Iron Man that was used in the musical of the same name by The Who guitarist Pete Townshend.

The People's Lamp
Art Durham County DurhamA large-scale Miners Lamp to honour the Bowburn Colliery and the wider Durham coalfields.

Wee Kelpies (Kelpie Maquettes)
Art Lochgilphead ScotlandThe Kelpie maquettes in Ardrishaig, at three meters tall are the 1/10 scale prototypes for the real McCoy Kelpies by Andy Scott stabled in Falkirk.
Never Miss A Fabulous Place
If you are afraid of missing out on all the fabulous places we post, or just want to be the first to know, then sign up to the Fabulous North.
Each week we will email you all the brand new places that we visit.
Sign Up To AlertsFind Us On Facebook
We post all our new places daily on our Facebook Groups page, so join the group today and be notified when we add a new place.
Join Our Facebook GroupSquirrel And The Milkmaid was listed in Art // County Durham // Durham