IT is not only TV fame that has visitors flocking to a picture-postcard village on the North York Moors.

Goathland, near Whitby, won worldwide fame as the real-life Aidensfield – location for the 1960s-set TV series Heartbeat – and became a tourist magnet as a result.

But recent travellers appear to have been heading there to take an altogether different sort of trip.

In the past few days, seven arrests have been made following reports people were visiting a field in the area to pick magic mushrooms.

The men, in their 20s and early 30s and from the Hartlepool and Humberside areas, were arrested in the village after being spotted picking the hallucinogenic fungi.

The 2005 Drugs Act classified fresh and prepared magic mushrooms – which grow in the wild in the UK – as Class A drugs.

A police spokesman said: “We can confirm that we have received a number of reports of people visiting the Goathland area to allegedly pick magic mushrooms.

“Following a report on Wednesday, three men aged 21, 24 and 26 from Hartlepool were arrested on suspicion of possessing a Class A drug.

“They were each given an adult caution for possessing magic mushrooms, before being released later the same day.

“And on Thursday, four men from the Humberside area, two aged 26, a 28-yearold and a 32-year-old, were arrested on suspicion of possessing a Class A drug.

They have now been released on bail to allow for further inquiries.”

It is not the first time magic mushrooms have been harvested in the area.

Two years ago there were similar reports of people visiting the area with the same intention.

And news about this week’s arrests quickly spread round the community.

One resident said he saw police activity in Main Street earlier in the week and another added: “I have heard a rumour that they must have been seen picking the mushrooms. The police stopped a car and arrested an occupant.”

Heartbeat, based on the Constable novels of Ampleforth-based author Nicholas Rhea – the pen-name of former police inspector Peter Walker – was a huge hit for Yorkshire TV and was in production for 18 years before it was cancelled in 2010.