Five-year-old's Dukinfield 'snake' keeps on growing

A 'community snake' made entirely of painted rocks and started by five-year-old Holly Cropper in Dukinfield Park has captured children's imagination and grown and grown.

After starting out with just four painted rocks herself, the snake has extended over the last few weeks to incorporate more than 280 painted rocks to date.

All have been added to create the enormous snake by other youngsters with the ‘community creature feature’ now stretching for many feet around trees - while even a fairy garden has also been made at the site by other children.

Holly’s mum Racheal explained that she and Holly had started painting many rainbows when lockdown struck.

But then Holly, who usually attends Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Ashton, came up with the idea of painting the rocks to keep busy.

“Holly started with just four painted rocks for the snake and it has just grown and grown and we did not expect it would grow to such a size,” said Racheal.

Holly pinned a note to a nearby tree asking other children to paint rocks and help to build the snake.

“Holly has received four notes thanking her for starting the snake trail from other children which has made her really happy and it has obviously captured the imagination of all the local children,” added Racheal.

The family from Dukinfield have posted pictures of the snake on the town’s community Facebook page.

There’s still plenty of time to get involved to help the snake continue to grow.