Meet the man behind Silver Bridge’s painted rocks

A gallery of painted rocks has grown up on Barnard Castle’s Silver Bridge – and the Teesdale Mercury has tracked down the man behind the colourful display.

Pete Hughes started sharing his artwork in 2022 in Roberts Park, Saltaire, near Bradford.

It was a convenient spot next to his office in Salts Mill, which is also home to the renowned David Hockney Gallery.

The Barney connection came via his parents, who live in Startforth.

As caring responsibilities increased, Pete moved up north to be closer to them – and swapped his Saltaire gallery for Silver Bridge.

Now his whimsical creations can be found on both sides of the bridge, with walkers often stopping to see the latest additions.

Although Pete had long been a writer – running the Happy Cow website for many years and reaching an international audience – his interest in painting grew after a struggle with illness.

“After a months-long bout of truly horrible long covid, I felt an overwhelming sense of joy, love and gratitude for a new lease of life,” he said.

“The painting is just a way of expressing and sharing that with whoever may come across it.

“I actually began by doing ‘message in a bottle’ with little poems and funny pictures in glass craft bottles.

“I left them around the park, hoping little kids would find them.

“After a while, I graduated on to rocks because more space means more fun to be had!”

Pete admits that it’s not easy to explain why he does it – and jokes that it’s a bit like needing the loo.

“Love and joy just well up inside and have to be expressed and shared,” he said.

“If I didn’t let it out, it would probably cause physical illness of some kind.”

Although the Silver Bridge gallery was Pete’s idea, it was never intended to be an exclusive thing.

“It’s nice to see that a few others have begun to join in,” he said.

“Hopefully they get the same joy from the creativity as I do, and it would be lovely for it to become a community space for anyone to have a go.”

That’s part of Pete’s creed: anything that takes people out of their own thoughts and into the physical world can only be a benefit.

And he’s delighted to see other groups – such as the recently-formed Barney Buddy Club which meets for weekly walks around the riverbanks – sharing the same philosophy of enjoying the simple pleasures of countryside and company.

“There are many alternatives to painting,” he said.

“Any of the other art forms.

“Exercise or sport. Rambling. Sightseeing. Sitting in the garden and listening to the birds. Playing a game with the kids.

“It’s just remembering that there is a whole, most utterly beautiful and magnificent world out there, waiting to welcome prodigal human attention back home.”