‘Fairy doors’ are hit by vandalism
A QUALIFIED art teacher who spends her free time painting ‘fairy doors’ in County Durham felt like her heart had been “ripped out” after discovering her work had been vandalised.
Karen Gray had spent months painting ‘fairy doors’ on the trees in South Moor Colliery Park in Stanley.
A trail to see each creation had become a much-loved source of entertainment for local children.
However, on Friday evening Karen visited the park and found 37 of the 80 doors had been vandalised and spraypainted black.
Karen, from Stanley, said: “When I saw they were all spray-painted black I cried. I cried all night on Friday.
“I was absolutely devastated. It felt like my heart had been ripped out.
“It was like walking through a dead forest, it was awful. Everything had been painted black, whereas before it had been beautiful little painted doors in pretty colours. It was heartbreaking.”
Karen, 50, started painting the ‘fairy doors’ in the park days before the Easter holidays.
She would go out as early as 5.30am to create new ones so she wouldn’t be spotted by anyone in the hope of “keeping the mystery alive.”
She said before she started painting the doors the park had few visitors but now it is often busy with families taking part in the fairy door trail, especially at weekends.
Karen went back to the park the following morning and spent eight hours repainting each door, which can take between 20 minutes and two hours to create depending on its size.
A second member of the community, whom Karen had never met before, soon joined her to repaint the doors after hearing about the vandalism.
Around 30 members of the community also came together to help restore the trail.
Karen added: “They came out to help paint the doors back on and it made me feel so happy I could cry, compared to the night before.”
She added: “One bloke came up to me and asked if I was the person behind it. I said yes and he gave me £10 to get new brushes and paints.
“He said he had brought his children down to the park last weekend and when he saw the post about what had happened he was so upset he started crying.”
Karen first had the idea for painting the ‘fairy doors’ when she moved to the area in 2014 after spotting an area on a tree where she thought it would look good. It took her until 2022 to pluck up the courage to start creating them.