Details were revealed this week about a clinic proposed for Teesdale in 1875. It was due to be the first of its kind in the North and would have got a lot of attention - if it had got off the ground.

It was to be a Hydropathic Establishment offering all sorts of water treatments, internal and external. The plan was for an impressive building for 120 residents on a five-acre site in Barnard Castle.

Besides the treatment areas, it was to have rooms for billiard tables, music and reading, a large conservatory in the style of a winter garden, and grounds for croquet, tennis, bowling and skating.

I'm indebted to local historian Alan Wilkinson for showing me the original prospectus, which states it would be run by a "Medical Man of competent skill" with various baths including Turkish, plunge, spray, douche and needle.

The document states: "The situation of Barnard Castle for a purpose of this kind is unrivalled, possessing as it does a healthy and invigorating climate, picturesque scenery of the most charming description and a variety of walks suited to every constitution."

It states that the town has a copious supply of the purest and most wholesome water, from a spring on the edge of Bowes Moor, plus two mineral springs, one with iron salts and the other with sulphur. Wealthy folk travelled great distances to be refreshed and pampered.

Investors were invited to buy shares at £20 each, and the project was to cost an initial £25,000. So what went wrong? That I have still to find out, but presumably they couldn't raise the money. More about the project will be uncovered soon.

THERE can't be many village magazines that include such well-written, interesting and useful items as the Parish News, which is sent out monthly to homes in Gainford and Winston.

It is free, but donations keep it going.

It is a splendid publication, which owes a good part of its success in recent times to Isobel Richardson, who has just retired after 15 years as the editor.

She started as a cub reporter on the weekly Wolverhampton Chronicle, where before long she was writing the children's page under the byline Uncle Jim. "That was fine until boys and girls started calling to talk to Jim," she said.

"I would go down for a chat with them, but had to say I was Jim's secretary, and that he was busy or out on a job. They all accepted that."

I had the pleasure of being a colleague of Ms Richardson on another newspaper some years later, after she had worked in marketing for Patons and Baldwins.

The new editor is former teacher Jenny Harrison, helped by Peter Dransfield and Angela Freeman.

Among the stories which used to strike fear into listeners around Teesdale firesides was one about William Collinson, who farmed at Park End, and a dream of his which came true.

Two workmen, James Dent, from Grassholme Mill, and Jonathan Horn, from East End, were staying at his house while building a wall for him at Stannigill Foot, on the other side of the Tees.

They walked across a ford every day to work. But as rain lashed down one stormy night in June 1778, Collinson had a nightmare in which he saw the pair being swept away in the river, so next morning he tried to persuade them not to go.

But they insisted, even though the Tees was raging. He persuaded them to ride one of his carthorses to make the crossing safer. He crossed on another horse as he knew the ford well, but as they followed, both were swept to their deaths.

Local people were terrified, feeling their own nightmares might start coming true.

Congratulations to former MP Derek Foster, who, as forecast here four weeks ago, has been selected for the House of Lords.

* I'll be glad to see anyone who calls with snippets of news at The Northern Echo office at 36 Horsemarket, Barnard Castle, on Mondays and Tuesdays, telephone (01833) 638628.