AN old-style village centre costing £1m is to be created, with a cobbled street, four shops and a pavement cafe, inside a building.

Businessman Peter Coverdale will use energy-saving devices on the project on an 11-acre site at Cross Lanes Farm, near Barnard Castle, County Durham.

Only organic produce will be sold in the retail units, which will be run as butcher, baker, fishmonger, and green grocer shops.

Relics such as a farm cart, street lamps and delivery bikes will be placed outside them.

Solar panels, a windmill, rainwater harvester and heat pump to draw warmth from the soil will be used to ensure the project is "zero carbon".

Mr Coverdale, who has won awards for his work on renovating historic properties, said: "I want this to look just like the centre of an old fashioned village. I aim to make it look authentic.

"My intention is to sell organic food grown on the site or within a 20-mile radius.

"I will be promoting good Teesdale produce, bypassing supermarkets and giving farmers fairer prices than they get now."

The village setting will be enclosed in a large building that was used as a pig and poultry unit before he bought the farm.

The building will be insulated with straw and clad in stone - and have a new "living" roof made from turf or sedum.

The four shops inside will have different roofs, including one thatched and one with Teesdale stone slabs. They will have front doors but be connected inside.

His son, Nick, and daughter, Stevie, are training as cooks so they can run the cafe, which will sell only organic food.

His wife, Susan, will work on the accounts.

Mr Coverdale, who travelled to Iceland to study its "green" building features, has been given planning consent for the project by Teesdale District Council.

Mr Coverdale said: "It has taken nearly two years to get the details approved. The old village design would probably not have been agreed if it had not been enclosed in the big building."

Work is expected to start early next year.