While some politicians were busy at the Hutton inquiry in London on Wednesday, our MP Derek Foster and his wife, Anne, were engaged on something more fruitful: choosing jam and chutney at the Teesdale WI monthly market.

The couple, relaxed and tanned after a Mediterranean cruise, bought ten jars of the tempting preserves at the parish hall in Barnard Castle.

"We always come here to stock up as all the produce is top quality and we love the flavour," said Mrs Foster when I met them as they left, heading for a coffee in a church hall.

She was correct about the taste. The two jars I bought, rosehip jam and lemon and pineapple marmalade, have a tantalising tang and can be heartily recommended.

Keith Jones has worked harder than anyone for the past 15 years to ensure Teesdale's young folk enjoy their leisure hours, but he was still as enthusiastic as ever when I called on him this week.

He runs a superb scheme in which nearly 100 of them compose, play and record music, create animated characters, produce video films, maintain vehicles and sample other creative pastimes.

Keith, a Durham County Council project officer in charge of Teesdale Community Resources, cheerfully tackles any task that assists the public. When I dropped in he was busy organising a free family day, linked to the Sure Start project, to be held at the Jersey Farm Hotel on Sunday. Mothers will be treated to a healthily-planned barbecue, aromatherapy and music, while there will be face painting, story telling, pony-trap rides for the children. There is free transport from Barnard Castle post office, from 11am. Anyone needing a lift can ring Keith on 01833-690150.

It was pleasing to see two tourists from Ambleside taking photographs in Evenwood this week - what a reversal of roles. They were snapping the quaint old coal tub put up on rails a few years ago as a memorial to all local miners and coke workers, as well as to Dr John Neville, a highly regarded GP for 40 years. The tub, lovingly restored by Ian Stephenson, is now a splendid village feature, more fitting than the modern creations erected in some places.

Thomas Witham has long been regarded as the wealthiest churchman ever to occupy a pulpit in Teesdale, but a list of local residents I read the other day indicated how lavish his lifestyle was.

He resided in splendour at Lartington Hall with a copious retinue of live-in domestic servants tending to his every whim. But the names of people who had their own homes in the vicinity shows he was waited on more like a prince than a priest. In the line-up were William Nixon, his head gamekeeper; William Scarre, his land agent; Matthew Weatherald, his head gardener; Thomas Boddy, his butler; and the Reverend William Kirklham, his chaplain.

Witham was a Catholic with the rank of monsignor, conducting masses, hearing confessions and paying occasional visits to the sick. He always treated villagers to a costly party and gifts on his birthday and at Christmas. There was widespread grief when he died aged 90 in 1897 after 50 years at Lartington. He would have been even wealthier but for the fact that his father Henry, in whose honour the Witham Hall was built and named, gambled away a hefty chunk of the family fortune and once had to flee the district because of debts.

Parents must be proud of the banners created by their children and seen hanging from buildings in the centre of Barnard Castle at the moment. They brighten up the main street. A colourful one strung up near the small Echo office intrigues everyone who calls in and glances out of the window.

* 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.