SUDDENLY, shockingly, the scourge of foot-and-mouth disease is back on the doorstep of Upper Weardale.

This time it lies only four miles away - "over the tops" in the Northumberland villages of Ninebanks and Catton.

And, as the fresh outbreak spreads, it cast a shadow over a brave attempt to stage the 132nd Weardale Agricultural Society show at St John's Chapel, County Durham, over the weekend.

Last night, special prayers were read at the village church for the latest foot-and-mouth victims.

The Methodist minister in the dale, the Reverend Les Hann, said: "This has left people here living on a knife's edge, wondering if they are going to be next."

Appropriately, some of the events were staged in St John's Church for the first time in the show's history. Although there were no livestock classes, there were strong entries in horticulture, home produce and photography.

Show secretary Mavis Humphrey said: "People were obviously deeply concerned about this latest foot-and-mouth outbreak so close to the upper dale and this was a main subject of conversation.

"But we feel that holding the show has helped lift some of the gloom which has been about for so long."

Outside the church, the vicar, the Reverend Philip Greenhalgh, gave a demonstration of his hobby, basket weaving.

He said: "The latest outbreaks have brought more despair to this area. A lot of the shepherds I talk to every week are just really holding their breath.

"I know shepherds who have spent months on moorland farms and have just come down from them. Now they will have to go back."

Mr Greenhalgh, who is area dean for Stanhope, was vicar at Nenthead, which is close to Ninebanks, for five years, so he knows the people there well.

He said the staging of the show at St John's Chapel demonstrated "all that was positive in a community even in the midst of a crisis like this".

"It brings people together," he said. "It reminds them that there is hope and it shows the creativity of so many people in the dale - and that is what we are celebrating this weekend."

Farmers in Upper Weardale, who say they have had to endure "siege-like conditions" for the past six months, described the latest outbreaks as "absolutely terrifying".

Since foot-and-mouth was confirmed at farms in the lower dale - at Wolsingham, Hamsterley and Tow Law - Dennis Craig and his wife Maragaret have been living like "social lepers".

Mr Craig, who farms at Westgate and is a parish councillor, said: "We thought we were finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel and our lives could get a little easier, but now it has reared its ugly head again.

"The problem is we don't know where it is going to strike next. The prospect of it getting into the upper dale is too terrifying to think about."