THE best examples of the traditional rural crafts of hedge laying and dry stone wall building will be on display in the region next month.

The County Durham Hedgerow Partnership is staging its annual celebration at Beamish Museum, near Stanley, on Tuesday, October 30.

Competitors from novices to professionals will restoring the field boundaries at the attraction's Pockerley Manor.

Miriam Harte, museum director, said: "We are recreating around Pockerley Manor a landscape typical of the Georgian period.

"Well-laid hedges and beautiful dry stone walls were an integral part of the landscape at that time - a feature that is seen less and less nowadays."

There are open, intermediate and novice classes, with cash prizes in both disciplines.

Organised by the Tyne Tees Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) and the Hedgerow Partnership, it aims to promote management that maximises the wildlife and amenity value of field boundaries, including dry stone walls, in the working landscape.

Durham County Council is funding the event, while Dunhouse Quarry, near Barnard Castle, is donating about 40 tonnes of stone to build the dry stone wall.

The council's landscape officer, Peter Berry, said: "Encouraging traditional country skills is essential to the continued survival of the county's thousands of miles of hedgerows and dry stone walls."

About 30 entrants took part in last year's event and organisers are hoping for more this year.

Anyone wanting to enter the wall or hedge-laying competitions can contact Barbara Walton, Tyne Tees FWAG, Enterprise House, Harmire Enterprise Park, Barnard Castle, County Durham, DL12 8XT or telephone (01833) 696634.

The closing date for entries is October 15.

Published: 21/09/2004