The Westpark play area, opened in 2010, is the largest in Darlington to use a natural setting. Partly funded by the government’s Playbuilder Scheme, it encourages children to use their imagination by incorporating artistic elements from the surrounding parkland. It’s located on the north east side of the park, close to Westpark Academy Primary School and the Westpark Day Nursery.
The play area uses natural resources and clever landscaping to echo Westpark in miniature. Inspired by writer Lewis Carroll, and taking aspects from the three creatures celebrated elsewhere in the park – the water vole, the little ringed plover and the dingy skipper butterfly – sculptor David Paton has created the Westpark Jabberwock. Elements of this fictional creature are hidden in various places around the playground. Once found, they can be used to make brass rubbings so you can construct your very own Jabberwock.
This is the only part of Westpark where the art is figurative, rather than monumental, textual or decorative, though it’s not the only section to take inspiration from the creatures of classic children’s literature. Why not try to find where in the main park we have placed an extract about Ratty, the water vole from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame?