RECENTLY I re-acquainted myself with “The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Darlington, in the Bishop-rick”, by W Hylton Dyer Longstaffe (1854).

I first found it in the excellent library at the old Darlington College of Technology, and a copy now resides in the Centre for Local Studies, Edward Pease Public Library, Darlington.

I was drawn to things like the origins of our town’s name was perhaps the old name for the River Skerne (or maybe the Cocker Beck) being the Dare or Derne, ghostly goings-on in Glassensikes (between Blackwell and Croft Bridge), record flooding, history of the Bulmer Stone, a study of our great mathematician William Emerson, a female seemingly cured of facial leprosy by prayers to Saint Godric, and the “stangriding” and “skepping” (humiliation) of offenders.

Victims of “skepping” ended up in the Skerne.

In this book you will find amazing things at every turn.

It may be found online, but such things are tenuous, and the fate of the original (and its ilk) depends on what happens now, probably in the High Court.

This is our heritage - long may we have it.

M Watson, Darlington