FLOWER arrangers created a sense of the great outdoors inside a village church at the weekend.

St Mary's Church, in Staindrop, was transformed with 25 floral displays for the three-day Staindrop Flower Festival.

The theme for this year's event was The Glories of the Countryside.

Creative villagers and friends from further afield reflected Teesdale's green and pleasant land inside the grade I-listed building.

As visitors walked down one aisle they felt as though they were walking along the Teesdale Way footpath because exhibits included a stonewall, signpost, heather and a badger, fox and pheasant.

A farmland display featured an old-fashioned butter churn and a robin greeted visitors to an English country garden display.

Major William Trotter, one of the organisers, said: "It was quite spectacular, a lot of people said it was the most amazing sight they had ever seen. There were enormous banks of flowers filling the church and clever artefacts, even running water.

"A lot of talented people, from the village and beyond helped the event go very well to help meet the running costs of the church."

On Sunday, the church held an evening service, with the Reverend Nick Barker, the Archdeacon for Auckland.