LOCAL historian David Butler will help ramblers blow off the festive cobwebs on two walks over the Christmas holiday in Durham.

The grimy side of Victorian life will be examined in Mr Butler's now annual two-mile stroll through former city grot-spots - he calls it Death, Dirt and Disease in Durham - on Christmas Day.

It starts in the Market Place, at 2pm, and takes in unlikely areas, just off the city's familiar tourist beat.

Mr Butler then hopes to answer the question Where was Newton Hall?, on a guided walk in the city's northern suburbs, on Boxing Day.

A four-mile trek, it begins in the car park of the DLI Museum and Durham Arts Centre, on Monday, at 1pm.

The charge for both walks is £2.