THE village that refused to die today marks another stage in its near-miraculous resurrection. Witton Park has been down, kicked when it was down, allowed remission only when its aggressors hurried to find bigger boots. It was the community, said an ill-remembered county planning officer, that neither could nor should have a future.

It was insanitary and unseemly, enormously overcrowded and absurdly under-funded - and yet it remained home to an awful lot of good neighbours.

Published today, the book which colourfully chronicles that near-death experience is called Forever Paradise. "Witton Park," it begins, "is one of the best loved villages in England."

For almost 150 years, however, it can hardly have been said to have been heaven on earth.

Paradise was the name of the site on which Bolckow and Vaughan built their ironworks in 1846, with the accurate prediction of 2,000 jobs.

The Wear Valley, said John Vaughan at the opening ceremony, had often been spoken of for its beauties. When he saw smoke emanating from tall chimneys, he could not help exclaim that the beauties were much enhanced.

The ironworks belched for 38 years, houses hurriedly thrown up all around, pubs on every thirsting corner. The gutters overflowed with beer, says the book - and often, very likely, with those who drank it, an' all.

"Witton Park in its heyday was contemporary with the American Wild West, and every bit as lawless," says the book. "It was certainly not the safest place on earth, but among the most exciting."

The ironmasters left, the houses and the workers largely remained. The puddlers were in the clarts.

There were soup kitchens and there was starvation, rag-arsed kids, begging parents, scenes that were to be repeated many times during dark days and depression.

The only time they formed a Witton Park Defence Association, however, was when authority wanted to obliterate their homes for ever.

One by one, the long terraces were demolished, their inhabitants mostly transported to the Woodhouse Close estate at Bishop Auckland, two or three miles away. Witton Park folk unequivocally called it The Reservation.

All this is recalled in Forever Paradise. It may be, as the book says, that no one locked their doors because there was nothing worth pinching, but they padlocked their rain butts because fresh water was so precious.

Durham County Council's iniquitous Category D policy had condemned 121 villages, of which Witton Park was the largest. When it was overturned in the 1970s, Witton Park had almost disappeared beneath its dead-hand diktat.

Now the village by the River Wear is vibrant again. There is smart new housing, proper planning, a new-born air of optimism.

No one wanted to live in the slums to start with, simply to be allowed to start afresh where they were. At last, day by day, it is happening. Paradise regained.

THE book has been compiled by cousins Keith Belton and Ken Biggs and by Witton Park-born Dale Daniel, with whom we had a couple of pints on Monday.

The trio have also compiled a Forever Paradise CD - 1,200 photographic images, poems, essays and the rich scrapbook of cuttings garnered by the late Clarrie Simon, these newspapers' penny-a-line correspondent in those parts.

"They just knock me out, I stay up at night reading them," says Dale.

Ken, he supposes, was the technological mastermind without whom nothing would have been possible; Keith, now in Stockton but from long Witton Park generations, was the historian.

"I'm the historian's labourer," says Dale, but it was he who principally organised The Gathering, a rapturous reunion which two years ago drew 2,000 people back to the village.

"A day for embracing the inglorious past," the column observed at the time.

Dale, 56, is now in Bishop Auckland. "Like many more, I was chucked out of Witton Park," he says.

"They bulldozed the bottom streets, then the top streets and when only Black Road was left, there was soon no room for anyone else."

Originally they planned just a handful of books - "one each for us three, a copy for the schools and libraries". Now there are 1,000, among the most vivid village histories ever encountered. The schools got their copies yesterday.

"It's for posterity," says Dale. "If it's simply a reminder to never again try to destroy communities like they did with Witton Park, then its purpose will have been served."

l The book is £8.50, the CD £6.50, both together £12.50 - plus postage in every case. Details from Dale Daniel, (01388) 606543 or at wittonparkbookyahoo. co.uk A visual exhibition of Witton Park history will be at Bishop Auckland Town Hall from August 19-31, excluding August 24 and 26.

THE Artful Accountant, better known to Eating Owt column readers, won a bingo game at his holiday hotel in Majorca last week.

The caller asked his name. "Mike from Shildon, Co Durham," he said.

The following evening, another winner came up for his prize. "Mike from Shildon, Co Durham," he said.

The second, it transpires, was Mike Gill. Not so long ago he was driving Rothman's vans out of Spennymoor; now he has two bars in Tenerife.

"Canny lad, I saw him back in the Railway Institute a couple of months ago," reports our man on home territory.

Attempts to discover why some people have all the fun in the sun have led us to Greg James, former landlord of the Hole in the Wall in Darlington Market Place who now runs a successful bar of the same name in Tenerife.

"If he's here, I'll find him for you," promises Greg. More, with luck, next time.

BEST foot forward, John Robinson's "Barefoot Crusade" is on again. Support party diminished for safety reasons, John will attempt to walk the 20 miles from the Church Mouse at Chester Moor to the Cumby Arms at Heighington on August Bank Holiday Monday.

Properly shod, eight others - including the column - will accompany him, all sponsored for breast cancer research.

Margaret Wilde, helping organise the walk with her husband Geoff, is herself recovering from breast cancer. The fellers were each other's best man.

John, another Shildon lad, is presently hoofing barefoot around the neighbourhood in preparation. Over 30 years he has already raised many thousands for charity through his martial arts expertise.

The walk finishes at the Cumby Arms around 4.30pm, when a big party is planned. Barefoot Crusade T-shirts and sponsor forms are available from Margaret on (01325) 310489.

The column would also be most grateful for personal sponsors - cheques to the Breast Cancer Research Appeal, c/o The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF.