PEOPLE are being put in the picture about the lifestyle in a Northern dale. which has largely remained forgotten over the centuries.

A book about the history of Weardale, in County Durham, has unearthed a wealth of secrets about its industry, village life and the social habits of its people.

The book, History in the Landscape, has been written by husband and wife Caroline Hardie and Niall Hammond, against the backdrop of the dale's archaeology and architecture.

They have written extensively about the history and archaeology of the North Pennines.

The book, published by the Weardale Society, deals in detail with the rise and fall of mining and the railways in the dale, its steel industry, changes in hill farming and, more recently, the demise of the cement works at Eastgate.

In a foreword, the society's chairman, June Crosby, writes: "Compared with the Yorkshire dales and Peak District, Weardale's wonderful landscape, archaeology and architecture have remained relatively unknown.

"This book is intended to make the dale better known and more accessible."

The authors have cleverly "opened up the dale" to outsiders by tales of the pluck and hardiness of Weardale men, such as Old Willie Currey, of Stanhope, who after buying a pig at Stagshaw Bank Fair carried it home on his shoulders, a distance of about 20 miles.

They also relate irregularities going on among the bosses of the Weardale District Highways Board, who operated a steam roller and road crew out of Stanhope in 1888.

They are described as "spongers studying their own selfish interests, rather than the interests of the ratepayers and appropriating a couple of hundred pounds by lazing about."

But more bizarre - even macabre - was what passed for entertainment in the dale in the late 1800s.

This involved a visit by a team of German trainers with what they described as "a Russian dancing bear" to St John's Chapel market place.

The poor animal, which had been blinded with a white-hot iron, was made to stand on hot coals and dance to the commands of its trainers.

On a happier note, the authors pay tribute to the hardiness of dale people through the decades.

"What shines through the past," they write, "is the robust character of the inhabitants of Weardale, who have had to deal with a difficult terrain and a form of oppressive feudalism that controlled not just agricultural activities, but private beliefs and behaviour".

* History in the Landscape, published by the Weardale Society, is available at various outlets, including post offices in the dale, price £9.95. For more information, call 01388-528380.