RHODA Fraser's spare bedroom is piled high with boxes, baskets and characters from brass pigs to soft toy hedgehogs. She finds it almost impossible to pass a charity shop without popping in to seek out another prop for her storytelling venture.

Mrs Fraser, originally from Arkengarthdale but now living in Brompton on Swale, is Richmondshire's first professional travelling storyteller.

With the help of a £2,000 Arts Council for England grant and £1,000 of her own cash, she set up the Stories in the Park project, which aims to take tales from around the world to children across the district.

Venues lined up include the community orchard at Reeth, Kiplin Hall near Scorton, Richmond's Georgian Theatre Royal and Friary Gardens, hotels and museums.

Some of her grant went on a colourful, swirly, patchwork coat with pockets from which she pulls characters and objects linked to her tales.

The coat was custom made by Rebecca Atkinson, of Applegarth Designs, near Richmond, who lined it with midnight blue silk.

Drawing on her 30 years' experience with amateur drama and operatic groups, Mrs Fraser brings stories to life and involves her young audiences in choosing a pocket, wearing a hat or guessing what happens next.

"I was a shy child with a vivid imagination, who developed into a less shy adult, still with a vivid imagination," says Mrs Fraser, a trained nurse who formerly worked at Nightingale Hall nursing home, Richmond.

Winning a Brooke Bond creative writing prize at the age of ten kick-started a lifetime of writing poems and monologues, which she has performed to Women's Institutes and church groups. Last month, she saw her work go into print with a booklet entitled Yorkshire Humour, which is sold to raise money for Arkengarthdale Methodist Chapel.

The storytelling idea grew from themed ghost walks which Mrs Fraser has led in Richmond for the last four summers and which saw her taken on as resident storyteller at the Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes, in January.

"A friend gave me an article about Taffy Thomas, a storyteller based in Grasmere, in the Lake District, who has become my absolute hero," she says. "I read the article and it sounded fantastic and I was inspired to do something similar for Richmondshire."

After three months collecting letters of verification and pulling together a business plan, Mrs Fraser approached the Arts Council and was delighted to secure £2,000 towards the project.

Her regular venues include the Reeth Community Orchard on Wednesday afternoons during the summer. She is also involved in the Stories Alive project at the Georgian Theatre Royal and appears as a variety of characters at Kiplin Hall.

Mrs Fraser also hopes to return to the King's Head Hotel, Richmond, for storytelling round the log fire. She did a session there on national storytelling day in the spring, when she dressed as Frances I'Anson, the legendary Lass of Richmond Hill, to tell her story, and also that of Robert Willance, whose death-defying plunge on horseback in the 17th century gave the name Willance's Leap to a local cliff.

Mrs Fraser also has links with two Richmond charities - the Duck Club and the Meet - both of which have helped her project. The Meet committee provided her with an old-fashioned storyteller's chair and the Duck Club gave money for a puppet, which is being made by Miss Atkinson, who made the coat.

"The puppet will be called Jo/Joe - a boy or a girl, depending on the story," says Mrs Fraser. "I will be Granny Flo with Little Jo, who will sit on my knee during the stories."

One of her favourite tales comes from India and involves a hat salesman whose wares are stolen by naughty monkeys. For this, she has collected a sackful of different hats which she gets the children and their parents to wear as the story unfolds.

"There is a huge sombrero, which always comes out first and which I get one of the dads to wear, much to the amusement of all the children," she says.

She also draws on Dales history and characters for her own stories, including the unlikely tale of Neddy Dick, from Keld, in upper Swaledale, and his "rock" band. Neddy was well known in the mid-19th century for his musical entertainment on a mouth organ, cow bells and a collection of rocks from the River Swale which he hit with various implements.