ANYONE who goes to the next farmers' market in Middleton-in-Teesdale on May 27 will be able to feel like a film or television star for a while.

A horse-drawn carriage will be there to ferry visitors from the mart car park to the village centre, and then to give short trips around the locality.

Ken Wilson, who provides horses and carriages for costume dramas, will supply the transport for the day.

He will drive a valuable open landau, which will be pulled by Max, a seven-year-old horse whose last appearance on screen was with Billie Piper in Mansfield Park.

Mr Wilson, who is based at Leasingthorne, has more than 20 horses, mostly well-trained for this kind of specialist duty.

He has a wide range of coaches, and can supply one to suit just about any era that is being depicted.

He has lost count of the stars who have been taken for a ride in them.

They include: Kate Winslett, Christopher Eccleston, David Jason, Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee, plus the leading lights of more than a dozen televised Catherine Cookson tales.

"There were some from Coronation Street and EastEnders, but I'm hopeless at remembering names," he said.

He is also in demand for weddings, funerals, processions and other grand occasions.

Susan Semple, the events organiser for Middleton Plus, said she is delighted to have secured this new attraction for the second market, following the success of the first one. "The trips up from the mart will be free, but there will be a nominal charge for the others," she said. "It will be a treat for many people."

There could be more than the 18 stalls, which did brisk business at the first market.

JOHN TOULSON, a haulage company owner, says he is taking a back seat and letting his daughter Hayley, 22, run two major events on his 50-acre Barford Meadow site, near Staindrop.

"It's good to see young ones having a go, and I'm sure she'll make a really excellent job of them," he told me.

The first is a harness racing day, with some of the region's best horses and riders, on Sunday, June 3.

The second is a five-day festival of country and western music, with many fine bands, starting on July 31.

Hayley gained her HGV licence when she was 21, so when needed, she is able to drive any of her father's fleet of trucks all over the country. Her boyfriend, David Walker, is also qualified, so at times they set off in two lorries in convoy to a distant destination.

"She's a superb driver," said her father.

Joy Robson, of Staindrop, is giving some guidance on the harness racing, which will be the first in the dale, apart from the annual finale to Eggleston Show and a meeting put on once as part of the Meet.

Mr Toulson used to be known as a daredevil stock car driver, but has never tried horse racing. "But I'll be going along to watch, and I'll probably have a little flutter with the bookmakers," he added.

He is now busy with plans for his three-day Barnard Castle steam fair, which begins on May 26 at Streatlam Farm, and his three-day truck show, which begins on August 25 on the same land.

"But Hayley will be helping with these as well," he said proudly. "She is determined to make a career out of promoting major events like these, and I'm certain she'll do extremely well."

JOAN SEMPLE called with four lines of verse she remembered her late grandfather reciting:

Thy yearly visitation

To Teesdale's windswept hills

Doth mystify the gardener's hand

No matter how he tills.

She wondered if it was a section of a poem by Richard Watson.

The answer is No. It was part of a tribute to the dale's most famous flower, the blue gentian, not by the leadmining bard, but by another much-admired writer, Walter Bayles.

Many people have spirited away clumps of the gentian to plant in their own gardens, only to see them dying quickly no matter how much skill and care is devoted to them.

It is accepted that the dainty small bloom can prosper only in the wilds of the upper dale and in the Alps, so the message is: leave it alone, as transplanting never works.

The poem, composed by Bayles in the 1940s, ends:

So blossom, little diadem

Amid thy native air

With care I'll tread thy hallowed ground

For God didst plant thee there.

BRIAN ROBINSON, who is organising a reunion of pupils who left Barnard Castle Secondary Modern School in 1962, has had a card from Margaret Hardy saying she can't come as she now lives in Australia, but wishing the event success.

"It shows how far news of our get-together has spread," said Mr Robinson.

He has also been contacted by Sandra Spooner, who will travel to the event from Wiltshire, and Raymond Sayer, who will come from Derby.

Many will have shorter distances to cover, from around the dale and other parts of the North-East.

Others who left the school 45 years ago and wish to meet up with old friends at the function on July 14 at the cricket club can still get in touch with Mr Robinson on 01833-631641.