THE life of a miner who earned acclaim as a naturalist, conservationist and artist has been celebrated in his home village.

A four-day exhibition on Bob Lofthouse has attracted wide interest in the small former mining community of Ludworth, east of Durham, where he lived his entire life.

The pitman devoted his time away from the coalface to wildlife, either in drawing or painting, as a taxidermist, and an avid collector of birds eggs, which was, in his day, a less-frowned-upon hobby

Born the eldest of nine children in Margaret Street, Ludworth, in 1891, he followed in the footsteps of most contemporaries, working down the local mines.

He never married and, when the village's old colliery houses were demolished, he moved to Barnard Avenue, where he spent the rest of his life, living with a sister, Lily, until his death in 1968.

During the First World War, he saw service in the Army on the Western Front.

Despite losing an eye in battle in February 1916, he continued writing letters back to local newspapers describing his wildlife sitings from the trenches.

Ludworth Community Association loaned the 26-strong collection of artefacts and exhibits from Sunderland Museum to mount a display in the village hall.

Association secretary Olivia Simpson said: "It has attracted a lot of interest. We had a party of children from the local primary school in on Friday and over the weekend we've had a steady flow of people coming in to have a look.

"Many of them were relatives, including great nephews and nieces, and many older people who knew him.

"People remember him designing Christmas cards and giving them out to family and friends.

"He was a remarkable man and was widely acknowledged among naturalists."

The four-day event, which ended yesterday, included a talk by County Durham entomologist Michael Mann, an expert on insects, who gained much of his inspiration from the work of Lofthouse.