CHILDREN from a primary school have brought a new meaning to the hobby of stamp collecting.

Rather than sticking them in an album, pupils at Green Lane School in Barnard Castle have spent the last three years amassing an amazing 33,500 stamps, which were counted and bagged as they came in, to raise money for charity.

They were helped in their collecting by friends, businesses and the community.

They decided to give the stamps to the Butterwick Hospice at Bishop Auckland's Make a Million appeal, which encourages people to donate stamps, foreign coins and notes to turn into cash for the hospice.

Yesterday, the children were delighted to hand over the collection, which filled a bin bag, to Butterwick fundraiser Sylvia Stoneham, who said the pupils must have been very dedicated to have collected such an incredible number.

The stamps will now be sorted and sold, with the hospice receiving the face value.

Head teacher Mike Grainger said the school was delighted to be able to generate income for the Butterwick.

"We promote a theme of recycling in school with other items too, such as aluminium cans and printer cartridges, and we are to become more involved with the hospice in the future. We will continue to collect stamps, but the next batch will be counted by weight rather than number."