I am fairly new to WPF, and am a bit stuck, so any help would be appreciated.

I am trying to write WPF custom control that encapsulates several elements of functionality that I already having working (i.e sorting, filtering, standard menus, etc.), but in a nice neat package to avoid repetition.

Anyway I have created the custom control (based on control), and then have the following in the Generic.Xaml

<ResourceDictionary
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Controls.ListViewExtended">
    <Style TargetType="{x:Type local:ListViewExtended}">
        <Setter Property="Template">
            <Setter.Value>
                <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type local:ListViewExtended}">
                    <Border Background="{TemplateBinding Background}"
                            BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}"
                            BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}">
                        <ListView>
                            <ListView.View>
                                <GridView>
                                <!-- Content goes here -->                             
                                </GridView> 
                            </ListView.View>
                        </ListView>
                    </Border>
                </ControlTemplate>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
    </Style>
</ResourceDictionary>

When I try to add GridViewColumns (or any control really), as below ...

<elv:ListViewExtended>
   <GridView>
        <GridViewColumn Width="140" Header="Column 1" />
        <GridViewColumn Width="140" Header="Column 2" />
        <GridViewColumn Width="140" Header="Column 3" />
   </GridView>
</elv:ListViewExtended>

I get the "... does not support direct content" error.

I have created a dependancy property (again below) that allows the adding of GridView, but it still doesn't work.

public static DependencyProperty GridViewProperty;

public static string GridViewHeader(DependencyObject target) 
{
    return (string)target.GetValue(GridViewProperty); 
}
public static void GridViewHeader(DependencyObject target, string value) 
{
    target.SetValue(GridViewProperty, value); 
} 

Thanks in advance