“IN my art school days, the names of Durham, Richmond castle, Greta Bridge and Barnard Castle were places to be dreamed about, where subjects abounded, where every turn of the river or bend of the road provided a host of new material for paint or pencil, where change from sunshine to shadow, and spring to autumn, gave new shape, character and individuality to ordinary and out-of-the ordinary features in the landscape.”

So wrote artist Kenneth Steel for the 1947 Darlington Society of Arts autumn programme.

Here, in North Yorkshire and south Durham, he said the artist could find “shapely bridges and ruined castles, turbulent rivers, huge banks of trees and homely, out-of-the-way hamlets nestling under a background of hills”.

Now, for the first time in more than 60 years, Steel is back in the land of shapely bridges and turbulent rivers. An exhibition of his work, Places in Time, which has a heavy emphasis on local scenes, opens today in the art gallery in Darlington library.

“People who know, or who have been to, these places will love his work – there’s a nostalgic feel to it,” says Edward Yardley, curator and Steel enthusiast.

Barnard Castle bridge over the Tees. In 1947, Kenneth Steel wrote: "The full glory of Barnard Castle cannot be assimilated until seen in its acutal setting. The design of its bridge is a conception in itself, and where in England would one find another with such unique features and beautiful proportions?"Another view of Barnard Castle bridge, by Kenneth Steel, from the 1947 Darlington Society of Arts autumn exhibition programme

Appropriately for someone with the surname Steel, the artist was born in Sheffield in 1906. He won a scholarship to art college, began work in his father’s engraving business and was hailed as the “biggest artistic find of 1932”.

He produced limited edition landscape prints which, even in those depressed times, sold well. He found a market in Glasgow, where the wealthy American passengers from cruise liners would be looking for souvenirs of romantic Scottish scenes.

In April 1936, his agent booked his first exhibition in Darlington – probably in the very gallery in which, 88 years later, his work goes on display today.

Kenneth Steel

Darlington council was so impressed that, following its enlightened policy of supporting artists, it bought his watercolour of Durham, which graces today’s front page and which is still a highlight of the borough art collection.

But then the Second World War intervened.

“He’d married Olive in 1939, but during the blitz on Sheffield, she was heavily pregnant and was killed by a direct hit on their house which also destroyed his studio,” says Edward. “He was an ARP warden and was out on duty, and he spent two days trying to find her. What seems to have happened was that they got her out but the ambulance taking her to hospital fell into a bombhole and was wrecked.”

As well as the immense tragedy of losing his wife and unborn baby, Kenneth was made homeless and lost all his sketches and works from the first half of his career.

BR No 70000 Britannia caught in marvelous motion by Kenneth Steel. Britannia was the first BR Standard Class loco to be built at Crewe, entering service in 1951. An icon of steam, it pulled King George VI's funeral train from Sandringham in Norfolk into London. It was withdrawn in 1966, but was preserved. It is currently owned by pop impressario Pete Waterman, though is currently out of action

So he started again, undertaking a sketching tour of the shapely bridges and turbulent rivers of North Yorkshire and south Durham which led to him exhibiting with the Darlington Society of Arts in 1947.

In this second part of his career, he became more of a commercial artist, producing 48 railway posters, one of which featured his view of Durham, and 35 carriage prints – the landscape paintings that went beneath the luggage racks in British Rail carriages and which now, like the posters, are emblematic of the age of steam and very collectible.

Durham City by Kenneth Steel, from the Darlington Borough Council collection. All other images are from private collectionsAnother version of Durham City, which Kenneth turned into a railway posterKenneth Steel in his studio with the Durham railway poster behind him

One of his last commissions was a series of watercolours of the turbulent – and sometimes peaceful – Tees for the 1970 calendar of the Powerglass Corporation of Stockton.

“He died aged 1964 in 1970 of lung cancer – he was a heavy smoker,” says Edward.

“He had lost his studio and works in the bombing during the war and Grace, his second wife, was so distraught when he died that she started a bonfire in the garden. A neighbour saw her and talked her out of putting everything on, but still a lot was lost.

“Now, he hardly ever comes up for auction.”

Teesmouth, for the 1970 calendar. Kenneth Steel wrote a caption for the picture: "Tees Mouth, open gateway to the markets of the world. The deepening and widening of the River Tees channel to provide nearly 36ft of water on the lowest tides means that the port has the deepest water on the east coast of Britian between London and the Moray Firth. Already on Liverpool and London exceed the Tees for exports of manufactured goods and the development of port facilities is continually proceeding."

Consequently, he is little known, except among a dedicated band of collectors, many of whom have loaned works for the Darlington exhibition, which runs until September 26.

“I went to university at Bede College in Durham and went back to Sheffield to work as a stage manager and I saw his engraving of Durham, which is his tour de force, in a shop and I bought it to remind me of my student days,” says Edward. “Then I wanted to know more about him.”

His quest has taken him around the world, even to New Zealand, where Grace’s family inherited whatever escaped the bonfire.

“He was a very strong draughtsman, so technically he was able to draw and create an image that is architecturally correct, but often his pictures – like those of Lindisfarne or Bamburgh – are not taken from the standard angle but still they capture the essence of the place or structure.”

  • Places in Time: the Art of Kenneth Steel runs at Darlington library, Monday to Saturday, until September 26. For more on the artist, and to see Edward Yardley’s book on him, got to kennethsteel.co.uk

The magnificent 12th Century Devil's Bridge at Kirkby Lonsdale in Lancashire has a deep handprint at its apex, apparently made by the devil himself. The story goes that a cow belonging to an old woman strayed across the Lune and, however she tried, she could not coax it back. The devil appeared, and offered to build her a bridge in return for the soul of the first living entity to cross it. She agreed, and the devil whistled up the bridge with his own hands, leaving his mark in the wet stone. Then, having completed his side of the deal, he called on the old woman to fulfil her part of the bargain. She walked onto the bridge but pulled a bun from her bag which she tossed over the apex for her small dog to race over and collect. The devil realised he had been outwitted and vanished in a cloud of brimstone