VILLAGERS of Beamish have rolled up their sleeves to help their more famous neighbour - internationally renowned Beamish Museum - install its biggest ever object.

For the 23ft 6in-wide Elswick Number Two - Tyneside's last ever wherry vessel built in 1930 and last used on the river in the 1970s - somehow had to be transported down a 23ft 7.5in street leading to museum.

It took almost the entire village to pull back trees and help push the vehicle carrying the ship into its final dock.

"The villagers of Beamish were absolutely fantastic, we can't thank them enough," said John Gall, deputy director at the museum.

"It was an immense job to get this here. We started at about 8am on Sunday and didn't get it in the place until 5.15pm, and then we had to close the road," he said.

"We are still working on assembling the cradle now, but it looks mightily impressive."

Mr Gall said that the previous biggest object installed at the museum was the steam digger dubbed the Big Steam Navvy, 30 years earlier.

The wherry transported coal and raw materials across the Tyne and similar vessels were an everyday site in the North-East in the industrial heydays of the 19th and 20th Centuries.

It was transported on a low loader from a store in Hebburn, South Tyneside, and is 54ft long.