A UNIVERSITY student who combines brains and beauty has been named Miss Durham 2011.

Clara Belle, 23, won the seventh annual contest at Sedgefield Racecourse, in County Durham.

Miss Belle, from Durham City, has just finished an American history and politics degree at Warwick University – and is hoping for firstclass honours when her results are announced.

She is also an unpaid intern in the Westminster office of Roberta Blackman-Woods, Labour MP for Durham City, and hopes to enter politics in the future.

Miss Belle entered her first beauty pageant, Miss Coventry, in March, to get first-hand experience for a university essay on the role of pageants in American society.

She said: “I was writing and watching films about beauty pageants and it was such an intriguing world that I thought what better way to find out about them than get my own experience?

“It was fabulous. I expected it to be bitchy and superficial, but it’s not.

The girls are all so lovely and supportive of one another. It’s a great community.”

Miss Belle triumphed over 19 competitors to take the Miss Durham title, following three catwalk stages – ladies’ day wear, evening wear and fancy dress.

She said: “It was a real shock to win. I didn’t expect it. All the girls were so incredibly beautiful, smart and ambitious. I couldn’t believe it.”

Carly Auld came second and Rebecca Bingham third.

Miss Belle will now contest the Miss England final, to be held in Birmingham and Leicester next month.