Squirrel And The Milkmaid

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.