Built on an Ancient Sea: the Magnesian Limestone Landscapes of North-East England by John Durkin, Niall Hammond, Elizabeth Pickett and Paul Williams (Groundwork North-East)

MORE than 330 million years of North-East history squeezed into 192 well illustrated and easily readable pages, produced as part of the Lottery-financed Limestone Landscapes project, which finished after five years this month.

The coastal strip of east Durham, from South Shields down to Hartlepool and as far inland as Westerton near Bishop Auckland, and Shackleton Beacon, near Redworth, sits on a unique and exposed layer of magnesian limestone rock. This was created 250m years ago when the region alternated between being a hot and arid dessert and being covered by the salty, shallow Zechstein Sea.

Then, up to 28,000 years ago, the rock was shaped by the glaciers of the Ice Age which moved west to east and north to south across the landscape, scouring it like icy sandpaper as they went. The glaciers left behind moraines and meltwaters, kamels and kettleholes which created mysticism for the earliest settlers and interest for the later geologists.

The earliest settlers put down roots in the new Stone Age about 6,000 years ago, and the earliest evidence of them is to be found at their burial mounds at places like Old Wingate and Hastings Hill, overlooking the A19. Their distinctive geology has imbued them with a certain magic – at the Fairies Cradle, a tumulus near Hetton-le-Hole, the fairies still dance every midnight for the delight of those still awake to watch.

All of this has fascinated geologists for centuries. In 1794, William Smith, who is to geology what George Stephenson is to railways, visited Ferryhill to study the Yellow Sands that lie between the magnesian limestone and the older carboniferous limestone below it.

And it was only when North-Eastern man managed to conquer his limestone that the modern face of the region was formed: our early industrial engineers had to learn to bore down through the magnesian limestone and the water-bearing Yellow Sands to reach the coal in the carboniferous limestone.

So Durham mining communities less than a couple of hundred years old sit on top of the magnesian limestone which is more than a couple of hundred million years old.

The unique geology has given rise to the unique flora and fauna of Durham, as outlined in the chapter headed “magical meadows and small brown butterflies”. Several flowers which are nationally scarce thrive in our limestone landscape, such as the dark red helleborine and the bird’s eye primrose, which is like other primulas but is pink with a yellow eye.

This unusual collection of plantlife gives rise to unusual wildlife, most notably the Durham Argus, a small brown butterfly, which seems quite boring until you see its cute orange markings and white wing edges.

The book is available from Amazon or by sending a cheque for £14.80 made payable to B Geoconservation Group to L Dunlop, 97 Evistone Gardens, Walker, Newcastle NE6 3RU. Email ldunlop@btopenworld.com for further information.

Hartlepool History Tour by Paul Chrystal, Stan Laundon and Simon Crossley (Amberley, £6.99)

THIS pocket-sized picture book is a “best of” compilation, drawn from the authors’ previous books and presented as a walking tour of Hartlepool, using old photos as a guide.

Not, of course, as the authors say in the introduction, that you have to walk the tour – you can read it just as easily in the pub with a couple of pints of Camerons.

Many of the pictures are excellent, and many of the facts quite remarkable. We did not know, for example, that Hartlepool can claim to be the home of Bisto gravy. Salt had long come along salters lane from the saltpans on the coast, and in 1894, a pharmacist called George Weddell bought the Greatham Salt and Brine Company. From there, in 1907, he launched a new brand of free-flowing Saxa Salt.

The wives of two workers on Saxa Salt production line – Mrs Roberts and Mrs Patterson – complained how hard it was to make good gravy, which inspired the company to create Bisto.

Secret Whitby by Ian Thompson and Roger Frost (Amberley, £14.99)

THIS appears to be another old picture book, but, no, it contains loads of fascinating historical stories about the most enigmatic of North-East seaside towns.

For instance, in 1843, Duleep Singh, aged just five, became the last maharajah of the Sikh Empire following a wave of assassinations which had removed all the other claimants to the title. The youngster was driven into exile in Britain, and became something of a sensation in royal circles – it was he who gave Queen Victoria the famous Koh I Noor diamond.

As there was no going back to India for Duleep, in 1854, he rented Mulgrave Castle near Whitby. He had a couple of elephants shipped there to remind him of home, and he liked to ride them into the resort whenever he fancied fish and chips. However, because there was no road between Sandsend and Whitby, the elephants had to walk on the beach.

The beach, though, was too cold for the elephants and they appeared not to like getting sand between their toes, and so Duleep ordered the construction of the coast road from Sandsend.

Or so the story goes.

The maharaja definitely had the road built to shorten his journey time, but whether or not it was to appease his elephants, no one can say for sure.