Relief after Greatham snowdrops walk goes ahead despite Storm Dennis

Organisers feared the walk in the private wood at The Hospital of God may not be able to go ahead due to the strong winds that were forecast.

But the weather held off just long enough on Sunday afternoon to allow visitors in to stroll through the carpet of thousands of snowdrops.

It raised £1,100 for the work of Greatham in Bloom, which works to keep the village looking tidy and attractive, and enters the village in the annual Northumbria in Bloom competition.

Brian Walker, chair of Greatham in Bloom, said: “The event seemed to land in the eye of the storm where it was windy before and after so we were very lucky.

“We even saw the sun shining. The turnout was down on previous years but that’s to be expected with people seeing the storms.

“We are pleased with the result. We were expecting a lot worse and consider ourselves to be extremely lucky.”

Storm Dennis brought heavy rain and strong winds to Hartlepool over the weekend and a yellow ‘be aware’ warning was in place from 10am on Sunday to 11am on Monday.

But the town escaped the flooding and major damage experienced by other parts of the UK.

The wood was opened up by kind permission of the trustees of the Hospital of God.

Visitors followed a straw trail through the trees laid out by gardeners who also put up signs with interesting tit-bits of information about snowdrops.

People could also learn more about the history of the Hospital of God as talks were given in its Georgian chapel.

Mr Walker added: “The gardeners always do a wonderful job, especially laying out the straw path.

“There were thousands of snowdrops. The wood was practically carpeted with them.”

Greatham Community Centre was also open serving refreshments to visitors and hosted bric-a-brac and cake stalls, all manned by volunteers.

“We would like to thank everyone who came out and supported us and all of the volunteers,” said Mr Walker.