IT has a secret passageway, ancient swords, the personal effects of a legendary Polish dwarf, and is one of the region's oldest buildings.

But if you want to explore some of the lesser-known facets of Durham City's Town Hall, you have to rely on the services of the building's janitors.

However, Durham City Council is now considering appointing a full-time guide for the building - while acknowledging the "excellent" level of historic knowledge of the building's four caretakers.

Among them is Tom Callinan, who delights in taking a break from his mop and bucket to tell tourists from around the world about the dark, dank prison cells underneath the building, the stories of 34in dwarf, Count Joseph Boruwlaski, and a hidden narrow passage-way leading to the river.

As far as Mr Callinan is concerned, the biggest mystery is why only a few thousand of the 1.2million visitors to Durham each year tour the historic building.

It is a fact which has led to calls from councillors to develop the treasure as a major tourist attraction.

He said: "Count Boruwlaski, who has a statue in the town hall, always makes them laugh - especially the women - when I tell them his wife used to pick him and stick him on the mantelpiece when they had a row."

Mr Callinan says the count, who toured the courts of Europe, lived the last of his 97 years in Durham, until 1837.

A ring thought to be the one given to him by Marie Antoinette is on display.

But Mr Callinan dismisses the story that the count won a gold purse by accepting a challenge to discover the one fault in the market place's statue of the Earl of Londonderry - it has no tongue - as nonsense.

The most interesting stories are about the building itself.

Mr Callinan says that the oldest room, the Guildhall, dates back to 1356, although it has been rebuilt since then, and a great house stood on the site long before that.

Guilds still meet there, and sometimes hold ceremonies involving lighting candles and handing over silver to the staff.

There are also some of the swords and maces of Durham's mayor - one of only two in the country still allowed to have an armed body guard - an institution dating back to the 1200s. The other is the mayor of the City of London.

Then there is the mayor's chambers, thought to have been built originally as a stone-walled room in the 1500s, and where the entrance to a tunnel to the castle - now closed up - is thought to be located behind the mayor's chair.

Portraits in the room were slashed by a vandal in the 1990s.

City council leader Maurice Cranthorne confirmed that the appointment of a full-time tour guide was being considered by the council.

But he was full of praise for the excellent guides provided by the janitors.