The mining history and subsequent reclamation by nature of a country park is being celebrated in a new film. 

Cutacre Country Park is one of Bolton's newest parklands, having only existed for under a decade. 

Anyone who ventures to the site will be greeted by 530 acres of spectacular rolling landscape, with views of the Derbyshire Dales and Manchester in the east, across the Cheshire Plain and the Clewydian Mountains to the Mersey Estuary in the west. 

Formerly the Cutacre open cast mining site, the land for decades was an untouched slag heap, something of a "no-go" area. 

Oliver James LomaxOliver James Lomax (Image: Pete Whitfield)

Now, Bolton poet Oliver James Lomax has teamed up with Manchester composer Pete Whitfield and a video team to create a short film in tribute to the site and its history. 

It was shot by Jan Koblanski and edited by Nicole Williamson. 

Oliver said: "Pete walks the site and he got in touch with me, knowing I was a poet from Bolton. 

"I took a walk with him, and I must admit having spent much of my life in Highfield with it a stones' throw away, I was unfamiliar with it. 

A still from the videoA still from the video (Image: Pete Whitfield)

"I knew it was a slag heap as a child, it was a bit of a no-go area. We went down and bumped into a chap walking his dog, he gave us a bit of history, which was a bit of serendipity. 

"He said how the story goes that the ghost of a miner used to roam the top of the mountain and when there were storms he would set on fire in the rain. As soon as we had spoken to him I knew I wanted to get that in a poem." 

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The piece features words written by Oliver, a composition to accompany it by Pete and a film showing the former walking through the park and reciting the poem. 

He added: "One of the opening lines 'a gradient formed in dialect', I wanted to pay homage to the people, their time and effort as they contributed to this, some of whom were swept away. 

"Then time travels a little bit from that slag heap, the history of the site back into contemporary imagery of the rewilding of the site. 

"For me as a writer, having that soundscape for the words to sit on lifts the whole piece. It brings a sense of drama, it brings it to life. 

"And with the video, it has grown into a bigger thing. We spent a lot of time picking out images. I think it is a beautiful bit of film and music, I love it."