What's the significance of Durham's bare-bottomed statue of Neptune and where did a lovely house once stand in Whitby? Harry Mead finds the answers to these questions and more.

DURHAM: OVER 1,000 YEARS OF HISTORY AND LEGEND by Martin Dufferwiel (Mainstream, £9.99)

ON his plinth in the heart of Durham City, Neptune is not seen to best advantage by visitors arriving from the Cathedral. But to Martin Dufferwiel, the sea king's bare backside is not embarrassing.

It is tempting, he says, to view the rude posture as "an everlasting gesture by The Old Man of the Sea to those persons who in previous times, would have had him removed from his place of honour, and also perhaps a suitable comment on the ill-prepared schemes that so abjectly failed to turn Durham City into an 18th century port".

For that is why Neptune stands there - as a symbol of canal plans that would have linked Durham with the North and Irish seas. Erected in the Market Place when the idea was new, Neptune always struggled to hold his prominent spot, which he finally lost in 1923 when he was replaced by the now fondly-remembered police traffic control box.

Virtually dumped near the railway station, Neptune was damaged by vandals and lightning before being ignominiously swept from public view altogether. Not until 1991 did he make his comeback - his exposed posterior now lending comic significance to his story.

Born in Durham City, where he works in the chief executive's department of the city council, Dufferwiel tells Neptune's tale very brightly in this personal celebration of 1,000 years of the county's history. Not intended as a formal history, it is a showcase of subjects that enthuse its author - and no doubt all the better for that.

Even so, Dufferwiel presents his topics chronologically and in groups, which creates a sense of historical progress. We feel the county evolve and change from the days of the Vikings to the end of coal mining, with a pre-referendum hope, now snuffed out, of Durham City as the centre of a revived Northumbria.

Of course, St Cuthbert and the founding of Durham Cathedral are here. So too are the Lambton Worm, the Battle of Neville's Cross and Timothy Hackworth (though, surprisingly, not George Stephenson and the Stockton & Darlington Railway).

Less familiar subjects include Jeremiah Dixon, Cockfield-born co-surveyor of the Mason-Dixon line that separated the American North from the South during the Civil War, and the martyrdom of John Boste, a Roman Catholic priest executed on what is now a Durham City school field.

Particularly intriguing is a piece about a non-event - Durham City's escape from the Second World War Baedeker bombing raids that flattened much of many historic towns, including York. In perfect bombing weather, the enemy planes apparently circled Durham but made off without dropping their bombs.

Dufferwiel says some ascribe Durham's escape to a miracle by St Cuthbert. There are even claims that a mysterious mist arose to baffle the bombers - Durham's own Angel of Mons. But Dufferwiel suggests that the true miracle was that "throughout the whole duration of the war, neither city nor cathedral was damaged by a single bomb..."

If his book has a fault, it is that it is too much focused on the city and its neighbourhood, to the detriment of, say, Teesdale and, even more so, Teesside, which barely get a look in. Still, all Durham folk proud of their county will find much to enjoy here.

NORTHERN PRIDE by John Grundy (Granada, £7.99)

WELL-known through his much-admired Grundy's Wonders TV series, John Grundy presents his personal choice of "the very best of Northern architecture", from cathedrals and churches to terraced houses and pubs. Grundy's chatty style and strong opinions, allied to considerable erudition, make him a stimulating companion. But it is a shame that, in this book, if not on the telly, he is not always specific. His celebration of chip shops, for instance, doesn't name a single example, though this reviewer's local chippy, at Stokesley, graces the back cover.

THE INN WAY...TO Northumberland by Mark Reid (InnWay Publications, £7.95)

NEEDING no recommendation to readers of The Northern Echo, the paper's estimable walks' contributor adds Northumberland to the series that put him, er, on the walking map. Based on Rothbury, taking in the coast from Warkworth to Bamburgh, and with its inland return embracing Wooler and Alwinton, his 94-mile tramp is divided into six day stages, each nicely described, with maps, attractive line drawings and an ample helping of history. Just one thing, Mark: break up the long, long paragraphs.

THEN & NOW WHITBY compiled by Colin Waters (Tempus Publishing £12.99)

THE fascination of Whitby is endless. And so, happily, seems the supply of historic photographs of "t'awd spot". Those in this selection, brought together by the co-founder of the town's popular Pictorial Archives, set the past against such present day scenes as the bus station (once the site of a lovely house), the Midland Bank near the bridge, which replaced a humble sandstone building, and the neat new housing at Whitehall Shipyard, much changed since a Victorian camera captured it crowded with tall-masted sailing vessels.

Published: 18/01/2005