IN a sylvan hollow with a beck babbling by, a small group of Cub Scouts sizzled sausages yesterday over an open fire, fulfilling a Good Friday tradition that stretches back generations.

But yesterday, apart from the deer, they were the only ones in the grounds of Raby Castle, in Teesdale, County Durham.

Their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, though, would have been able to remember how, in the 1920s and the 1930s, the woods and fields around Staindrop were full of thousands of voices - some shouting out in foreign languages.

Yesterday, the members of the 7th Darlington Sea Scouts sat around their fire with sausages on their sticks and smoke in their eyes. Their log cabin was behind them.

Back in their great-grandfathers' day, it is believed there were as many as 20 log cabins in the grounds of Raby. The then Lord Barnard was a friend of the Scouts' founder, Lord Baden-Powell, who came to inspect the 7,000 Scouts camping in 1936.

Today, there is just the one cabin which the 7th Darlington has been restoring during the winter. With the help of Mitie Property Services, of Middlesbrough, they have spent £2,000 on roofing, timber and creosote and yesterday's traditional sausage sizzle was the first event to be held there this year.

Faded old photographs suggest that the 7th has had a log cabin in this hollow - known to the Raby Estate as Charcoal Pit because of its connections with the charcoal industry that once flourished in Teesdale - since at least 1927.

The cabin on the oldest photographs burnt down about 1950, after which the current one was built.

Just as the number of cabins has dwindled, so the number of Scouts has whittled away. Yesterday, there were just seven sizzling sausages.

They were all Cub Scouts under the age of 11, because a couple of years ago a shortage of leaders meant that the older boys had to amalgamate with another pack.

Yet hope is on the horizon. A new Scout leader - Mike Smith - has come forward and there is room for another 20 Cub Scouts in Akela Ann Lowis's pack. And the Sea Scouts still have four Mirror dinghies.

"We are hoping to get two of them sailing again," said Ann, "so that the older boys can start entering regattas again, which we haven't been able to do since the late-1980s."

All they need now is some members. Both Scouts and Cub Scouts meet at Heathfield School on The Broadway, in Darlington, every Wednesday evening. Anyone interested should ring Ann on (01325) 355089.