HORSE power of the traditional kind has been used to clear a way through an overgrown park.

Woodsman Chris Wadsworth, of Guisborough, east Cleveland, and shire horse Tyne went into action at the weekend to clear fallen trees from footpaths in tumbledown Fairy Dell, at Coulby Newham, near Middlesbrough.

Tyne was on loan and acted as a replacement for Mr Wadsworth's 22-year-old shire gelding Tees, who is too stiff in the joints to take part in some aspects of logging.

Tees is, instead, being used to train up-and-coming replacements Eden and Ouragan.

Mr Wadsworth said: "Part of the training procedure is putting horses in a team with an older one so that when you give instructions, the old one will anchor back, if the younger one is going to fast, or give a push in the right direction if he is too slow."

The logger has had Tees since 1993 but, before then, did a lot of training with him on a farm in east Yorkshire.

Tyne is on loan from the same farm, where he will be returned. Middlesbrough Council organised an open day in Fairy Dell at the weekend, in a bid to recruit a friends of the park group to steer improvements at the vandalised park.

Visitors were able to watch demonstrations of willow weaving and kite-making as well as see now a fallen tree has been carved into a sculpture.