I have been asked why I became involved with this project: why take lots of photos of Craghead? Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time - and I was going to be supplied with free cameras to be snappy with.

I started by photographing the street where I lived and the people around me. Eventually I moved further afield, to other areas of the village, places I hadn't really looked at before. I started peering round corners, over hedges; I talked to people I'd never met.

I began to notice things, things I hadn't seen in the fourteen years I've lived in the village. In fact I took a camera with me whenever I went out - just in case.

Through the photos I've taken, I've seen the very worst: littered streets, fly-tipping, pollution, derelict properties. I've seen the very best: well-kept houses and gardens, children playing, smiling faces - the spirit of survival.

I've seen the village which was almost dying become revitalised, with the Millennium Green, a new village hall, and beautiful new wrought iron gates for the cenotaph - and this year, a community park for Railway Street.

The miners that worked and died here will not be forgotten, as the photo of the miner's lamp shows, but I feel that it is now time to leave the Old behind and concentrate on the New.

I sincerely hope that this website, with the addition of future photos, will become a testament to the village and the people of Craghead.