A WORK by celebrated artist Norman Cornish has been sold for £8,200 at auction.

The Pit Road, a pastel and chalk work created by the famed Pitman Painter, was sold at Newcastle auction house Anderson and Garland.

Mr Cornish, of Spennymoor, died last month (AUG) at the age of 94, having spent more than half -a-century creating pictures of everyday life in the pit villages of County Durham.

The piece, bought by an anonymous Northern collector, was one of three artworks by the former Durham miner for sale in the auction.

The watercolour 'Children Playing in a Ruined Church' sold for £2,300 and a chalk piece, 'A Bust Portrait of J Green Wearing a Flat Cap', went under the hammer for £1,300.

Auctioneer Fred Wyrley-Birch said: “We expected a lot of interest in the Cornish pieces following his recent death.

“He was the last surviving member of the Pitman Painters, and The Pit Road went to a Northern collector for more than we expected.”