A businesswoman is putting on the style by living up to the old adage, if you want to get ahead, get a hat - or at least 50 at the last count.

Kathryn Hodgson is staking the success of her new enterprise on her collection of fashionable headgear, which she hires out from her home in Weardale, County Durham.

She started the business soon after her 41-year-old husband, Ian, lost his job with Lafarge cement, when it closed its plant yards from their home in the tiny hamlet of Eastgate.

Job losses at Lafarge, following close on the heels of the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak, has made it difficult for couples like them to remain in the dale - but Mr and Mrs Hodgson vowed to do everything they could not to move.

Both now travel out of the dale to work, Mrs Hodgson at an opticians and Mr Hodgson as a sign fitter in Stanley.

But the 33-year-old dreams of one day expanding her business from her back bedroom in Crag Villas and opening a shop.

She said: "Whatever I do, I want it to be in Weardale. That is very important.

"Ian couldn't get a job in the dale. There is nothing. He tried for a job at the cement works for a long time before he got one in the mid-1990s. He worked in the fluorspar mines before that, and they have gone as well."

Mrs Hodgson devotes her evenings and weekends to her hat business, Ladies Elegant Hat Hire.

She said: "I've always worn hats for special occasions, such as weddings, but when I needed a hat I realised that people do not want to pay £100 for something and only wear it once."

Mrs Hodgson's hire charges start at £15 and she has a range of hair accessories. She can be contacted on (01388) 517066.