A farm is to expand after becoming one of the first in the region to be accredited under a new national scheme to increase schools' access to the countryside.

Hall Hill Farm, at Lanchester, near Durham, has been in the Gibson family for three generations.

Ann Darlington, who recently won the North-East Rural Woman Entrepreneur 2005 award, runs the farm's visitor and education centre and has been awarded a grant from the Department for Food and Rural Affairs' rural enterprise scheme to expand.

The improvements will include an expansion of the existing cafe/farm shop and a new audio system installed so that visitors enjoying the farm trailer ride can learn more about what's going on. The facilities will open on April 1.

Last year, the farm welcomed more than 60,000 visitors, many of them school groups.

Mrs Darlington has been accredited under the Countryside Educational Visits Accreditation Scheme (CEVAS) that aims to increase schools' access to farmland and provide safe, educational places for countryside teaching.

Farming Minister Lord Bach said: "CEVAS accredited farms provide children with a stimulating farmland visit and, by taking the classroom out into the countryside it also gives a greater understanding of food, farming and the countryside as part of the curriculum."