THE last Heartbeat-style village policeman in a part of the North-East has hung up his uniform after three decades of serving a rural community.

Alan Lambert, 54, has retired after 27 years patrolling the 180sq miles of moorland around Edmundbyers, near Consett, County Durham.

Living in the police house, his career reflected aspects of the Heartbeat TV series -knowing everyone by their first name and dealing with poachers and petty criminals.

But while Heartbeat showed PCs Nick Rowan and Mike Bradley powering around the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield on motorbikes, Mr Lambert occasionally had to resort to humbler transport.

He said: "They gave me an Austin Allegro once. And for a while I had to do on these roads with a one-litre Metro."

He moved from Bishop Auckland to the police house in Edmundbyers with his wife, Pam, and their first child, Donna, in 1977.

He said: "Our plan was to stay for three years, then move on. Somehow it just never happened. Rural, community policing was always what I wanted to do."

Living in the police house until last year meant he was on call 24 hours a day.

Mrs Lambert said: "One winter, he had to go and dig out a family's car that got stuck on the moors. When he got back, he literally had icicles hanging off his coat."

Another winter, the couple took in four Australian backpackers caught in a blizzard.

And when the milkman in Edmundbyers could not get out for ice on the roads, Mr Lambert found a novel way to deliver the goods.

Mrs Lambert said: "He piled up two sleds with bottles of milk and went out to deliver it himself. Every farmhouse he went to, they were so pleased to see him, they gave him a glass of whisky."

The couple have seen village life change drastically over the years.

Mr Lambert said: "When I came here, most people were farmworkers, or people working in the countryside.

"Now most people work in Newcastle or Durham."

When rural car crime soared in the late 1990s, he set up a hide in bushes to monitor the Derwent Reservoir car park. He had to blow his cover when a gang of Hell's Angels, unaware of his presence, set out to relieve their bladders in the foliage.

The area is peppered with shooting estates, and working with gamekeepers to combat poaching was one of his main priorities.

He said: "Sometimes it was like cowboys and Indians. I loved it. It was treated like a bit of a game by some."

He stepped down in August, but stayed on a time to help his replacement, PC Dave Telford, who will cover the same beat, and who is also responsible for Castleside.