Hartlepool man attracts thousands of Twitter followers with pictures of his favourite benches

Hartlepool man Paul Griffiths on one of his favourite benches in Leyburn, Wesleydale.

Paul Griffiths, 58, from Hartlepool, created his @MyFaveBench account three years ago and now has more than 5,000 followers.

His passion for benches began when his family were young and they used to make an annual family trip to Hawes, in the Yorkshire Dales, and sit on the same bench to eat fish and chips and enjoy the views.

Since then he has taken pictures of benches wherever he has travelled and eventually decided to share his favourites by setting up a website and on social media.

The views include pictures from bench's overlooking Hartlepool's own coastline.

Other people now share their own pictures with his followers.

Paul, a process technician, said: "We used to go to Hawes and at the end of each visit we'd always end up squeezed onto the same bench looking out at the moors."

Hartlepool naturally features in the collection.

Related content: View gallery of Paul's bench photographs

"The bench has a plaque on it that reads 'lift up my eye's to the hills'. Simple words from Psalm 121 but the view from that bench got me thinking of all the benches that we have sat on which also had beautiful views.

"For years after I would talk about having a website that would show off other people's favourite benches.

"I now spend hours responding to photographs and stories about people's favourite benches from around the world and I love every minute of it.

"People tell me now that they can't walk past a bench now without taking a photograph of it and posting it on Twitter and I know what they're talking about because it's so addictive."

Paul's favourite two benches are on a walk called The Shawl in Leyburn, Wensleydale, reputedly named after a shawl Mary Queen of Scots dropped while escaping from nearby Castle Bolton around 1568.

He added: "The views across Wensleydale are beautiful and we like to come here and just sit and enjoy the changing colours with a glass of champagne or just a flask of Yorkshire Tea."

For more details about Paul's collection of photos go to www.myfavouritebench.com or follow him on Twitter at @MyFaveBench