THE home of probably the largest agricultural collection in the North of England hopes to make more use of it.

Beamish Museum, in County Durham, has thousands of items ranging from a small turnip knife to a heavyweight threshing engine.

Most have been donated by the region's farmers or their families and mainly date from the late 1700s through to the First World War.

Seb Littlewood is the curator of the museum's rural collection. He said: "Our collection runs into thousands of items. I would say it is the largest in the North-East and possibly the largest in the North of England.

"A large part of the museum is acres of farmland and we are looking at how we can use our collection as part of that.

"We already have a heavy horse operation and are looking at ways of developing that and using other parts of the collection."

This year, the museum has been involved with a number of rural community groups in County Durham, and with the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and its hay time project.

It included an exhibition at St John's Chapel and used its horses and horse-drawn machinery to cut a hay meadow on Joy and Owen Henderson's Carrs Farm, which overlooks Wolsingham, in Weardale.

Seed from there may be used to help Beamish restore its own hay meadows.

Mr Littlewood said the museum was all about representing the working lives and livelihoods of the people of the region.

"A lot of what we have were everyday objects which disappeared with mechanisation and different working practices.

"They were discarded, but, certainly over the last few years, there has been renewed interest in the agricultural collection.

"People have become more interested in the countryside and how the land was managed in the days before tractors and combine harvesters."

He said most of the collection was due to generous donations, sometimes from families who have wanted their father's or grandfather's tools to go to the museum.

"There is still the discovery in the attic or shed and, although the museum does not have a huge special purchase budget, if it is important enough, we will consider the occasional purchase. But our prime source comes from the generosity of donors."

The rural collection is not confined to agriculture. There are tools from clog-makers, coopers, farriers, blacksmiths, hurdle-makers and thatchers - even mantraps landowners used to deter poachers.

Mr Littlewood's personal favourites from the agricultural collection are the Northumbrian scythes.

With wooden handles 8ft long and a blade approaching 5ft, they are much bigger than the American scythes which most people picture.

"The Northumbrian scythes were used all over the country, but became identified with the region because they were used here the longest. They help epitomise the region."

There is also a good collection of peat tools - peat was particularly important in the uplands of Durham and Northumberland, where it was the chief source of heating.

Another important implement was the long breast plough, which the user leaned against to separate turf from soil.

The turf was then stacked in piles and burnt, with the resulting ash put back on to the land as fertiliser.

Mr Littlewood said: "We have everything here to take you through the farming year, including a number of ditch and drainage tools.

"The whole winter, farmers would clean out their ditches and drains.

It was hard work and costly, but important."

There are gaps in the collection - one is hand flails, which the museum would like more of.

Made from wood, they were swung round and used to beat grain off the stalk and split seeds from ears before mechanical threshing took over.

Other gaps are mostly pre-1800 tools and implements used prior to industrialisation.

The museum's two farms - Pockley Manor and Home Farm - are popular with visitors.

John Eden, owner of the Beamish Estate, created Home Farm as one of County Durham's rare "model"

farms in the 1830s.

Although not a groundbreaking pioneer himself, he was a keen member of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, and adopted and implemented the new ideas of the time.

Most of the county was behind the times, still operating five and seven-year tenancy agreements which did nothing to encourage tenants to spend money on the farm.

Neighbouring Northumberland was far more modern, with 21- year agreements giving tenants a reason to invest.

The farms feature some of the larger items in the collection, including a threshing machine and the separate threshing engine which powered it.

Most of the collection is now kept in the large, purpose-built resource centre.

Mr Littlewood, colleagues and volunteers are still meticulously labelling and storing each item, but groups and societies are welcome to visit the behind-thescene displays.

They, and anyone wishing to donate any items, should contact the museum on 0191-370-4000.