A VICAR who risked his life to tend the sick and dying when cholera swept through a North-East town will be recognised in a book.

The epidemic killed 145 people in two months in Barnard Castle, County Durham, and many people fled the town.

But the Reverend George Dugard worked day and night to take medicine to the victims and give them some comfort.

Now this black period in the town's history, and the part the selfless clergyman played in bringing it to an end, will be told in a book published this month.

Beverley Pilcher, 38, of Barnard Castle, researched the grim facts about the outbreak as the basis for a thesis for a degree in historical studies at Sunderland University in 1995.

Since then, she has been surprised to find that few local people know about the events of 1849, which led her to write the book.

The outbreak was caused by poor water supply, overcrowded conditions in tenements, inadequate sanitation and lack of ventilation.

Victims were buried in mass graves behind St Mary's Parish Church, in the town centre, where a stone cross stands as a memorial.

Ms Pilcher said: "This was a really sad and traumatic episode for the town, but not many people seem to know much about it.

"I feel my book will at last put all the facts on record so there will be a permanent reminder of how much the local population suffered.

"The death toll could have been much worse but for the efforts to fight the disease."

That fight was led by Mr Dugard, who campaigned for a better water supply and sanitation, as well as spending hours in the cramped tenements each day easing the pain of patients.

He kept urging the local health board to make changes, and, as the epidemic eased, conditions improved in the tenements, which were lived in by scores of families for many more decades before they were demolished.

Ms Pilcher said: "George Dugard had worked in Manchester during a cholera epidemic some years earlier. He did wonderful work there and repeated it here without any regard for his own safety.

"He played a major role in looking after the sick and dying, as well as being influential in getting conditions improved. He was a real hero and the town should be grateful to him.

"Although I tell about his efforts in the book, I feel he deserves more attention, so I am planning to some more research and write another book about him."

She said that until then, Barnard Castle was regarded as a quaint market town, where life was good. But as workers moved in to get jobs at local mills, conditions became overcrowded in the Bridgegate area, near the River Tees.

* The book, Barnard Castle and the Cholera Outbreak of 1849, will be on sale at the end of the month, priced £7.95