Development plans are under way at a North Yorkshire brewery.

A 120 tonne crane, visible for miles around, lifted brewing vessels through the roof of the Black Sheep Brewery, in Masham, North Yorkshire.

The crane lowered a three-tonne mash tun, used to mix barley and water, and a four-and-a-half tonne hopback, used to filter spent hops from the liquid, into place.

The equipment will be housed in a second brewhouse, which will be built alongside the existing operation.

Work on the development is scheduled to be completed in May, increasing the brewery's capacity to nearly 80,000 barrels a year, equivalent to 23 million pints.

Black Sheep sales and marketing director Pat Green said: "This is only one part of our expansion plans, which will see us producing half-a-million pints a week within two years."

The brewing vessels were transported up the A1 from the Midlands on Monday on a 75ft-long, 16ft-wide load.

They will be assembled on three floors inside Black Sheep's stone-built brewery.

Paul Ambler, Black Sheep Brewery head brewer, said: "This has been a real thrill for me as it is by far the biggest lift of new brewing equipment into a working brewery in the 35 years I have been brewing beer."

The brewery was little more than an empty warehouse in 1992 when Paul Theakston, whose family have a 160-year brewing tradition, set the business up.

It brews 13 million pints of beer a year, has an annual turnover of £10m and employs 96 full and part-time staff.