LOTTERY funding is helping youngsters keep in touch with the mining roots of their community.

The Creative Coundon project will be based at St Josephs's RC Primary School and will be open to all sections of the community.

Although Coundon is recorded as the first pit to be given permission to extract coal by the Bishop of Durham, there were fears that its mining legacy would be lost to future generations.

Now, through a series of art, music and drama events, children are helping to preserve the area's rich industrial heritage.

Pitman and artist Tom McGuinness has designed a stained glass window for the school, which is being painted by Darlington artist Duncan Storr and made at the North Grange glassworks, in Newcastle.

Blacksmith and artist Graeme Hopper, from Hunwick, will work with history groups, Coundon residents and the school to design and build a security fence decorated with mining images.

Musician Jez Lowe is composing a Coundon song, which the children will record on a CD.

And theatre artists Jack Drum will lead sessions exploring the influence of mining over all aspects of life.

Anyone with a story to tell is invited to contact the school and there are opportunities to help with research.

A meeting to provide information has been arranged on September 27 at 7pm.

The first event is a talk in the school next Friday at 7pm by Dr Robert McManners and Gillian Wales, authors of a book on mining artists.

Headteacher Stefa McManners said: "Our children are too young to have seen a pit and it is important that the mining influence is not lost.

"This will get them exploring the past and talking abut what made their community."

Creative Coundon is funded by a Lottery grant, Wear Valley District Council, a Sparks grant from the Forge Arts in Education Agency and Age Concern Durham County.