ARTIST Elaine Page played a key part in The Journal’s campaign to save the Northumbrian mansion of Seaton Delaval Hall.

She persuaded 100 artists to donate work to an auction which raised £13,000 and which kick-started a wave of find raising ideas to ensure that the National Trust could buy the hall and boost tourism in the North East.

Now Elaine has launched another ambitious venture which she claims could transform the visitor economy in North Tyneside.

Elaine, 59, who lives in Whitley Bay, plans to fulfil a childhood dream by placing a mermaid sculpture on the Black Midden rocks at the mouth of the Tyne below Tynemouth Priory and Castle.

The Black Middens historically have been the cause of a series of shipwrecks and Elaine envisages the lifesize mermaid being fitted with a solar light as a navigational aid.

She has commissioned Newcastle sculptor Alan Scott to produce two bronze small-scale models of the mermaid, one of which has been presented to North Tyneside Council which plans to put it on public display.

The models are based on Elaine’s painting of the mermaid and a story she wrote about the mythical figures.

The lifesize mermaid would cost £30,000 and Elaine is hoping that businesses and local people will rally round to raise funds in a similar fashion to the successful Seaton Delaval Hall drive.

The first fundraising events have been planned and Elaine is distributing petition sheets which people can sign in support of the project and on which they can pledge a donation if they wish.

Elaine said: “As a young girl my father took me and my brother fishing at North Shields Fish Quay and my mind would wander.