THE deer park at Whitworth Hall Country Park has been reopened in time for Christmas.

The park, between Brancepeth and Spennymoor, County Durham, has been closed since March as a precaution against foot-and-mouth disease, but people are now free to walk off their Christmas meals with a stroll through the 73-acre estate.

Families visiting the ancestral home of Bobby Shafto can also visit the newly-restored pet cemetery outside the main hall, where generations of the Shafto family buried their pets.

Bags of food to feed the ducks and deer can be bought from Shafto's Inn and Restaurant near the car park, and permits for coarse fishing at the lake can be purchased for £6 a day.

A recent Halloween trail through Whitworth Hall's Victorian walled garden raised nearly £300 for the Butterwick Children's Hospice, in Stockton.