Four tourists from France sounded quite animated this week as they translated the words on a history display board at the site of a Roman ford used for three centuries by troops to cross the River Tees at Barnard Castle.

The visitors took snaps of each other and wrote out the details from the notice, telling how the soldiers splodged over the river at this point while marching between Roman forts at Bowes (Lavatrae) and Binchester (Vinovia).

The road was started in 80AD, so this is an important feature of the local heritage. It is close to the site of the old gasworks, which was one of the earliest in the county, and the largest when established in 1835.

The spot is now adorned by an attractive mosaic floor and has unusual stone seats carved by the talented Keith Alexander. It cost a great deal of money and won an environmental award some years ago.

But as the French enthusiasts sat eating a picnic lunch I realised they were the very first people I had seen on the site though I've regularly walked a dog past it for the last couple of years. It is invariably deserted.

On the other hand there are often families relaxing or paddling at the old bandstand site, a few minutes' walk upstream. Why is the ford location ignored? One local resident suggested it's due to it being tucked out of the way with no decent view of the river -- a problem that could be solved by felling some trees -- and often still has a faint whiff of gas, though the works closed in the early 1970s.

Now that Derek Foster is no longer our MP, what will he do with his time? My money is on him being made a life peer in the near future. When this happens it will at last fulfil the suggestion made repeatedly by his unsuccessful Tory opponent at the 1987 general election, Robin Wight. This flamboyant candidate, one of the noisiest and most colourful ever to bid for the seat, told audiences everywhere, "Derek Foster has been a first class MP and given this area superb service. Let's reward him by sending him to the House of Lords and I'll take over from him here."

Terry Willits, who started playing his trumpet in jazz bands in the early 1950s, is back in action with it again after an interval of some years, and is delighted with the reaction of the first audience in his new lease of life.

He is in the lineup of TJQ (for Teesdale Jazz Quartet) with drummer Mike Tulloch, who is around his vintage, and two younger men: Andrew Yeadon on guitar and Paul Hughes on bass.

Their debut gig was at the Redwell Inn in Barnard Castle. "It was wonderful, with the most enthusiastic audience I've known since the 1970s," said Mr Willits. In his time he has played with some big names, such as Don Rendell and Art Thomas.

With two mature and two more youthful players, the new group considered several names. including Hims Ancient and Modern, before agreeing on the three initials. They could become regulars at the Red Well, but some other venues are also interested.

Mr Willits started playing as a pupil at Darlington Grammar School before lecturing and teaching in London and Leicester, where he was in a band which performed regularly on BBC radio. He says he gets just as much pleasure from playing jazz now as he did in his younger years.

I am grateful to my colleague Sheila Dixon of the D. and S. Times for this tale about an inspector's visit to a primary school in the dale. He showed one little boy a set of pictures of animals to identify. All the answers were given instantly, apart from one.

As the pupil gazed at it with a puzzled expression, the inspector muttered that surely everyone living in a rural area like this should recognise a sheep.

"I can see it's a sheep, but it's the type that's puzzling me," said the bright lad. "It's got a head like a Jacob but that's some other kind of body."