The Woolly West Project

The bulldozers have demolished much of the west end as we know it. But local residents have been working with Search to help build it up again in wool.

Across Benwell and Scotswood people were busy knitting, crocheting and working with wool in other ingenious ways to recreate buildings and scenes from the west end past and present.

Woolly items produced include:

• A woolly picture of the view south across the river – made by a group of women and girls in Pendower
• A cross-stitch model of St Margaret’s Church, Scotswood, built by a group of church-goers
• A model of Benwell Nature Park created by members of the Benwell Hall Drive Knit and Knatter group

Knitting the community together:

The Woolly West buildings and figures have featured in a new film made by local film-maker Julie Ballands in collaboration with Search. It is a short animated film – using local voices and woolly actors and scenes. In it local people tell their personal stories and experiences of the changes they have seen in the area.

The film was made as part of the Northern Film Media Capture08 community documentary scheme and was shown on television on the Community Channel and BBC Look North in November and December 08. The film was launched at The Baltic and Search hosted a local event to show the film at Benwell Library.