(Image: TRIPADVISOR)
A garden centre hidden in the County Durham countryside offers an attraction shoppers might not expect alongside the plants and garden furniture.
Lanchester Garden Centre, at Bargate Bank around a mile outside Lanchester, is also home to Potter's World, a registered zoo and tropical attraction.
It means a visit can include considerably more than picking up plants, with the site also featuring The Greenhouse Restaurant, aquatics, gifts and other attractions.
The garden centre has become a substantial destination in its own right and currently has a Google rating of 4.5 out of five from more than 3,600 reviews.
Lanchester Garden Centre and Potter's World (Image: TRIPADVISOR)
Potter's World adds an unusual element to the traditional garden centre experience.
Its educational programme includes zoo visits and wildlife sessions for schoolchildren, while the attraction operates seven days a week alongside the rest of the centre.
The Greenhouse Restaurant has also become an important part of the site.
Visitors can eat inside or, during warmer weather, use an outdoor patio overlooking the surrounding countryside.
The dog-friendly patio has heaters and blankets for cooler days.
The restaurant, garden centre and Potter's World are currently open seven days a week, generally from 9am until 5pm, with the last entry to Potter's World at 4pm.
The combination has helped make the garden centre a destination rather than simply somewhere to buy plants.
Recent visitors have praised the centre's size, its food, and the variety of things to do.
More than 3,600 Google reviews have been left for the business, giving it a substantially larger online footprint than many independent garden centres in the region.
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The site is around a mile from Lanchester village on Bargate Bank, the road towards Cornsay Colliery, and is signposted from the roadside.
It is within relatively easy reach of Durham, Consett and Stanley.
For families, however, it is the ability to combine a conventional garden centre visit with animals and lunch which provides the more unusual reason to make the journey.