FOR a few minutes, at least, there was peace on Earth yesterday for villagers to tell their Christmas story.

Police held up traffic waiting on the busy A68 near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, while the congregation of Etherley Methodist Church, in Toft Hill, acted out their version of the Nativity.

Shepherds joined villagers lining the route to sing traditional Christmas songs as Joseph and Mary, riding donkey Dixie, made their steady progress to their stable inside the chapel.

Their route took them past the village pub, the Three Tuns, where there was a frosty welcome from innkeeper actress Carol McAloon. As the couple, played by Trevor Bailey and Glynis Eggleston, took shelter alongside the Reverend Richard Bainbridge, a tractor-load of angels arrived on the A68 from West Auckland on Richard Todd's tractor, driven by his father Wilf.

There was no star for the Three Wise Men to follow. They completed the pageant by riding in on horses lent by the Hoppyland riding centre, in Hamsterley. All the actors joined in a tableau inside the chapel. The event, co-ordinated by Marie Cadman, was so successful that the church will be able to use photographs to produce their own Christmas cards next year.