A rock climbing firm is celebrating ten years in business.

Rock Antics has tripled in size since it was founded in 1994 by climbing enthusiasts Neil and Dawn Mason and Colin Binks in Newton Aycliffe.

The company, based at the town's leisure centre, now employs three full-time and ten part-time staff and has an average of 30,000 visitors a year.

Mr Mason, 60, said: "We tried to get all kinds of grants when we started but couldn't get anything. I had been made redundant and we put the house up as collateral.

"We rented a third of a sports hall to start off with, then four-and-a-half years later we rented another third. Eventually, we got the whole hall."

Rock Antics now has a £250,000 climbing wall, a nine- metre high wall with ropes and two free-climbing walls.

"Any money we have made up to now we have put back in," said Mr Mason.

"We felt there wasn't anything in the area for climbers and now we have a really good facility for the North-East."