IF it's good enough for Chatsworth, it's good enough for Castle Howard. The Duchess of Devonshire's farm shop at Chatsworth is rightly famous, but now the stable courtyard at Castle Howard, near Malton, has been revamped to include a farm shop, a caf and a chocolate shop - all in the setting of John Carr's 18th century buildings.

And, don't worry, Angela Henderson still has her Jorvik glass workshop there too.

"We wanted to offer a showcase for Yorkshire produce," says the Hon Simon Howard."

Over 90 per cent of the produce of the shop - which includes a grocer's, deli and butchery - comes from Yorkshire. There are many familiar names, such as Taylor's, Farrahs, Womersley preserves, the Yorkshire Soup Company, Black Sheep beers and Yorkshire country wines, along with lots of local cheeses. Though we also noticed Jenkins and Huswit cakes, which had sneaked over the county border from Bishop Auckland.

"We are very proud to have chosen local suppliers whose products are traditionally made to high standards and who also have a tale to tell," says farm shop manager, Andrew Bridgford.

"Much of the produce will have been grown virtually within sight of Castle Howard."

None of it - as you might have guessed - is particularly cheap but it's some of the best quality available. The butchery department sells all locally reared meat, including game from the estate and Castle Howard's own organic Aberdeen Angus beef.

Then there are the chocolates - as well as makes such as Green and Black, the chocolate shop also features local producers such as The Chocolate Society from Harrogate and the Little Chocolate Shop in Leyburn. The farm shop will also supply the new caf.

The castle has over 200,000 visitors a year, many of them from very far afield. Good to think they'll get a taste of the best Yorkshire has to offer.

* The farm shop, chocolate shop, courtyard caf and plant centre at Castle Howard are open daily from 10am - 5pm. There's free parking and you don't have to pay admission charges if you just want to go to the shops.

FORGET the computer, the plastic, anything that needs a plug and a power supply - go back to the simple things of life with traditional wooden toys. Instant fun - just add children.

In Angie Hossell's tiny shop in the Queen St Arcade, in Darlington, (between the fruit stall and Elm Ridge) the shelves are packed with brightly coloured wooden trains and toys. It looks like a proper Santa's Grotto.

There are toys you push or pull, big solid diggers and trucks that can be pulled apart and put together again. There are planes, puppets, farms, houses, Russian dolls and at least three different sorts of Noah's Ark.

Angie, 42, has worked in shops since she was 16, including time at Binns and running a newsagent's.

"But I always wanted my own business and I thought of the toys because they are so simple and so lovely and are often quite hard to get."

Most of her toys are imported from Germany, Holland or Poland.

Although the majority - and the lovely wooden puzzles - are aimed at small children, there are plenty of things for older children too, such as the chess sets, puppets, noughts and crosses sets or musical boxes. There are also stocking fillers and even wooden tree decorations, plus personalised presents such as name plaques or a train that spells out a name.

They are all refreshingly simple in an increasingly complicated world.

Angie thought at first that the toys would be bought mainly by grandparents, nostalgic for their own childhoods, but not a bit of it.

"We get a lot of grannies in, yes, but we get a lot of young mums coming in because their children love the toys. And these wooden toys are quite tough. They don't break easily like plastic. The worst that usually happens is that you might just chip them a bit, but you can still play with them." And best of all - they never need batteries.

* Angie's Wooden Toy Shop, Queen St Arcade, Darlington.

You can also get traditional wooden toys from Stevenson's in Hope Street, Crook, which has an embryonic but useful website: www.stevensonstoys.co.uk