INFORMATION showing what life was like in a castle hundreds of years ago is to be made public for the first time.

A large-scale excavation was carried out from 1974 to 1981 in grounds of the ruined fortress at Barnard Castle, County Durham and since then experts have been analysing the results.

Now details of the dig, led by Professor David Austin for the Department of the Environment, are to be published by the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland.

Local historians have welcomed the move to let everyone know more about the castle, which started as a wooden structure around the year 1100 and began its change to a stone stronghold about 1130.

Lorne Tallentire, of Middleton in Teesdale, a historian who took part in the dig, said yesterday: "A lot of fascinating material was unearthed so it will be excellent to have the details published and explained.

"It should help people to understand the lives of those who lived in, and around, the castle over the centuries.

"I'm looking forward to being able to study it."

One gruesome discovery was a horse which had been dumped in a well, possibly to foul the water supply and help bring an end to a siege during the Rising of the North in 1569.

Pottery, cannonballs and parts of weapons were found as well as evidence about the construction of walls and moats and signs that there had been life on the site in prehistoric times.

Local historian Alan Wilkinson said: "There are still some parts of the castle waiting to be excavated, so perhaps this will spur some interest in getting work started."