Two teenagers and a charitable trust have boosted attempts by a youth and community group to establish a permanent home in a County Durham dale.

Community centre officials in Stanhope were set a January 2004 deadline to raise £60,000 to buy the building they have rented from Durham Police Authority for almost 20 years.

Now they have been given a £40,000 grant by Newcastle's Northern Rock Foundation, to go with £10,000 pledged by a local business group.

The biggest surprise for Billy Hunt, who has managed the centre since 1985, has been £135 raised by a walk staged by teenagers Stuart Bowes and Jon Fraser.

"I was gob-smacked when they turned up with the cheque and told me what they had done completely off their own bat," said Mr Hunt.

"It makes all we are trying to achieve here seem so worthwhile."

The 16-year-olds completed the ten-mile walk around parts of the dale and Hamsterley forest.

Apart from providing sporting, craft and Duke of Edinburgh award scheme training for about 70 youngsters, the centre also acts as a hub for community life in Weardale.

Durham Police Authority announced almost two years ago that it wanted to sell the building. The fire station in Stanhope has been earmarked as a new police headquarters.