LORD FOSTER, of Bishop Auckland, who died last Saturday, had many interests, and one of his most passionate was heritage.

He always had kind words about this section of The Northern Echo, and he shared our admiration for the Nobel Peace Prize winner Arthur Henderson, the Darlington mayor who became MP for Barnard Castle – which was in Lord Foster's constituency – and then the first Labour minister in a British government.

Lord Foster was also involved in numerous local heritage organisations, from being a trustee at the Bowes Museum to being the inaugural patron of the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

He was even prepared to get dressed up as a Roman centurion at Binchester, as this trawl through the Echo's photographic archives shows.