Positively putting Rothbury back on the map

Jul 17 2010 by David Black, The Journal

LOCALS and visitors are being invited to reclaim the real Rothbury after it became the centre of the country’s biggest manhunt.

The Northumberland village was the unwilling focus of worldwide media attention when the hunt for Raoul Moat switched to the peaceful Coquet Valley community and was then the scene of the dramatic stand-off with armed police which ended in his death.

Now local artist Lynda Taylor wants to help her home village move on from the traumatic events of last weekend by creating a special tribute to its charms.

As part of an exhibition of her local landscape paintings which opens today in her Crown Studio Gallery in Bridge Street, Lynda is putting up a large board on which she wants people to add their own feelings, observations and recollections about the village.

Lynda, who has lived in Rothbury with her husband Graham for four years, says she hopes the notice board will help get a positive message out about the community, and remind residents and businesses about why they cherish it so much.

She said she had felt “frustrated and impotent” when watching and listening to the media coverage after Rothbury was dragged into the Moat affair.

She said: “It made me realise that the very thing that we all love about Rothbury, that it is such a fabulous place, was what had attracted this trouble to us. I decided I wanted to look forward instead of being angry, and am inviting people to say what they love about the place.