Heart of the union

9:55am Thursday 3rd July 2008

A first-time author at 76, veteran socialist Dave Ayre enjoys life on the edge - and that's just Windy Ridge THOUGH it's the finest day of a fitful summer, the coal fire's still in - that is to say, not going out - in Dave and Doris Ayre's crowded little front room on the very brink of Windy Ridge. You can never be too careful on Stanley Hill Top.

Doggy's first knight

8:39am Thursday 26th June 2008

Moir Lockhead has travelled a long way since his £9-a-week apprenticeship at the United bus company in Darlington

	The great bluff
	9:30am Thu 12 Jun 08
	A 9,000ft mountain is named after him in the Rockies, a market square in his honour in France - but in his County Durham birthplace, Captain George Burdon McKean VC MC MM appears utterly to have been forgotten.

Thaw points

9:43am Thursday 5th June 2008

David Bellamy doesn't believe in global warming, which has turned him into a whipping boy for the environmental establishment, but the green campaigner refuses to let their disapproval dampen his lust for life in this wonderful world'.

Model behaviour

10:26am Thursday 29th May 2008

Originally devised for children, it became enormously popular with young and old.

By Jove, what a life!

9:41am Thursday 22nd May 2008

George Allison mingled with royalty, was the BBC's first sports commentator and managed Arsenal FC, but he never forgot his humble Hurworth roots IN a commodious carrier bag from Mrs Margaret Chapman arrives a wonderful quartet of books, formerly owned by her late husband, George. Three of the four, perhaps coincidentally, have a Northern Echo connection.

Key worker

10:33am Thursday 15th May 2008

His career spans 60 years and he has no intention of retiring. The column meets all-round musical entertainer Neil Harris THE classic key worker, Neil Harris - the man who turned down The Beatles - is celebrating 60 years as a professional musician.

Genial giant

10:28am Thursday 8th May 2008

Gentle giant wrestler Gordon Renton was finally floored by an umbrella in Inverness HE was 5ft 9ins, weighed 25 stones and at one time it would have taken six men to carry the bier. The genial Gordon Renton, alias the fearsome Farmer's Boy, was much lighter when he died, aged 62, two weeks ago.

Hedley has his day

10:21am Thursday 1st May 2008

This week we delve deeper into the history of the three carved dogs' heads at Darlington's railway museum and discover a link to a famous North-East artist TO the dogs, as usual, last week's column puzzled over the three carved canines now on sentry turn at the reborn North Road railway museum - otherwise Head of Steam - in Darlington.

Compensation

12:20pm Thursday 24th April 2008

IF prisoners can claim compensation for the way they are treated in prison, maybe their victims can, in turn, sue them for the way they were treated by these villains.

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