ART exhibitions at The Old School House this year kicked off with a cosy, enjoyable and very personal set of oils and watercolours by Carol Archer in the Café Bar.

It was as if she had taken a trip around her favourite things – from steam trains and country walks in Wensleydale to a playful look at a garden shed bedecked in watering cans.

As well as detailed, warm portrayal of weathered stones in a centuries-old bridge, she captured the raw beauty of an old mine head in Rookhope, Weardale.

All her portraits of steam trains should have been hung at eye level, especially that of the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway.

The spring art exhibition runs for two weeks from Thursday, April 2, in The Studio and will be much larger. Judith Clark, art and events manager at the venue, has invited artists and photographers who exhibited there last year to take part.

They include David Lynam and Moira Metcalfe and photographs by David Tarn and members of the Wensleydale Camera Club.

The Old School House is open from 10am-5pm, Mondays to Saturdays, and n Friday evenings when films are shown.