A DALES engineer whose business was the victim of bad debt and foot-and-mouth is pinning his hopes on a new venture.

Jonathan Gardiner hopes he has found a gap in the market for his Farm and Country Store, which opened at the Batts, Frosterley, at the weekend.

He is the seventh generation of his family to run Gardiners, which opened as a blacksmith's, in Wolsingham, in 1779.

But with engineering work in Weardale drying up, he needed to diversify to secure the future for his two children, Ellie, seven, and George Ross, three.

The 2001 foot-and-mouth epidemic hit the company hard and farming work has fallen off since the start of the new outbreak. Mr Gardiner, who took over the business in 1996 and moved to Frosterley, suffered heavy losses when the Weardale Railway and a building company collapsed, owing him £7,000.

He said: "At one time it got so bad I felt like giving up.

"It is hard to find work in the dale with industry slowly disappearing and agriculture not doing well.

"With tourism seen as the way forward, I thought I would try to go down that route and offer something to the equestrian and country sports people."

His shop stocks outdoor clothing brands including Toggi, Joules, Shires, Hunter, Hoggs and Aigle.