THE groups funding a £2.4m expansion at a North-East visitor attraction yesterday saw how their money was being spent.

Officials from the Durham Freemasons group returned to Beamish Museum, near Stanley, County Durham, to check progress of a masonic hall that is being rebuilt brick by brick.

Freemason Dr Alan Davison said it was going to be an imposing, impressive building that would attract Free-masons from across the world.

The building, which was originally in Park Terrrace, Sunderland, was built in 1869 and was used until 1932. It was demolished in 1998, but the facade was saved and stored at the museum.

The masons donated £500,000 towards the cost of rebuilding the hall in the museum's old town.

The money was matched by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The building, due to open in 2006, will be the only one of its kind in Europe to be permanently open to the public.

John Gall, head of development at Beamish, said: "Societies such as the Freemasons are very much a part of our North-East heritage.

"What we have also discovered is the older lodges are remarkable treasure houses of regional culture.

"They are full of the best work by North-East painters, craftsmen and furniture-makers."

The ERDF grant is also funding two other attractions at the museum. Staff are creating a replica of Puffing Billy, one of the world's earliest surviving locomotives, built in Northumberland in 1813.

The project, part-funded with a £150,000 grant from the Hedley Foundation, will be used to haul the passenger train on the museum's 1825 railway.

In the last phase of the expansion, the 1820s Georgian landscape at Beamish will be enhanced with a replica of a colliery gin.

Beamish director Miriam Harte said: "We believe the new attractions, which will open in rapid succession, will lift the visitor numbers by 60,000 to 70,000 a year, and they will help to bring in more people from outside the region."

Published: 16/09/2004