A MEMORIAL to villagers who made the ultimate sacrifice has been re-dedicated after a facelift.

A £3,500 project to clean and restore the monument at Hamsterley Village, near Consett, was carried out last year, to ensure that servicemen who gave their lives continue to be remembered.

Among the guests at the re-dedication were North-West Durham MP Hilary Armstong, and Durham County Council leader Don Robson, Derwentside District Council chairman Oswald Johnson.

A new bench and fencing have been put around the memorial, which also bears a new plaque.

It was used for the first time on Remembrance Day last year.

The village celebrated the arrival of 2000 with a millennium festival, which produced a surplus of cash.

Memorial restoration fund secretary Ray Ellis said there was "overwhelming support'' for the idea of using the cash to fund the restoration.

Funding also came from Derwentside District Council, Durham County Council and villagers.

Local firm, The Dane Group, provided the fencing and bench.

Mr Ellis said: "We aren't sure when the memorial was erected, or who paid for it. It must have been shortly after the end of the First World War, in 1918, and it appears on an Ordnance Survey map dated about 1925.

"As to the financing of the monument, there are clues in the fact that the memorial is dedicated to the men of the colliery, and there is particular reference to Major Watson, an employer of the colliery.''

He said the Year 2000 focused minds on the the debt we owe to past generations.