PEOPLE can buy a piece of North-East history now that a Co-op supermarket dating from 1913 has turned into a collectable miniature.

The Co-op at Beamish is one of the open air museum's most popular exhibits. The store existed in Annfield Plain near Stanley from 1913, but when it was being demolished Beamish transported part of the building, brick by brick, to its site near Chester-le-Street.

Now it being transformed again, this time by miniature makers Lilliput Lane, for one of its limited edition collections.

John Marlor, from Collectables, who commissioned the piece, said work began on creating the miniature version about 12 to 14 months ago, when an artist began making drawings of the building.

The final version, of which 595 have been made, includes people in period costume, a tram, bike and milk churns.

Jackie Winstanley, spokeswoman for Beamish Museum said: "The Co-op is certainly something that brings back a lot of memories for a lot of people and you don't have to be terribly old to remember to remember it. A lot of Co-ops remained like that until the mid-sixties."