VILLAGERS are planning a performance to celebrate the history and culture of their former mining community.

Residents in Craghead, near Stanley, are working on a show incorporating live theatre, video, poetry and music.

The piece, still in the early stages of planning, will centre around a time traveller who visits Craghead at various stages of its past, from its Victorian heyday to the closure of the mines.

A core group of six villagers are steering the project, which is being funded by the Craghead Area Partnership and the Return to Learn Centre in Stanley.

Project leader Stephen Yelverton, of Return to Learn, said: "We are considering the past of Craghead with the present and exploring how we are looking to the future.

"Craghead is a very interesting place. When you think of what happened when the pits closed, it is really testament to the resilience of the people that Craghead is still here."

The group will finish script writing this week and will next month start working with local musician and sound engineer Simon Bailey on the technical side of the production.

The show is scheduled for Craghead Village Hall at the end of October.