IT IS a shame that Anthea Turner feels her memories of her wedding day have been tarnished and that her honeymoon has started in tears. No one would wish that on anyone.

But, in all honesty, Ms Turner only has herself to blame.

She is the one who sold the exclusive rights to her wedding to the highest bidder - OK! magazine - and she is the one who posed, with her husband Grant Bovey, happily slipping a chocolate bar into her mouth. This was just minutes after the ceremony when most other couples are happily sipping champagne.

It is hard to believe that one so media-savvy didn't, as she now protests, know what was going on. For a start, the wrapper on the chocolate bar was so carefully peeled down that it didn't obscure the name but still allowed her to take a mouthful.

There is a lesson in this for all celebrities, including politicians. It is not possible to manufacture interest in your private life or manufacture a family image when you have a programme to plug or an election to win, and then expect everyone to turn a blind eye when you are doing something moderately newsworthy. Like getting married - or even christening your baby.

In fact, to do so is to insult the public who pay their licence fee to make your reputation or who use their vote to get you into government.

Lost treasures

OPENING the International Committee for the Conservation of Industrial Heritage, Sir Neil Cossons, the chairman of English Heritage, summed up exactly why The Northern Echo launched its Treasuring Our Railway Heritage campaign a couple of months ago.

Sir Neil said: ''In 500 years time visitors will come to this country to see textile mills, iron foundries, coal mines, railways and other industrial buildings as they now flock to see the monuments of the ancient civilisations of Egypt and Rome.

''However, with the pace of change faster and the pressure for development greater than ever before, our industrial heritage is increasingly vulnerable. We must save the best of it while we can."

The Stockton and Darlington Railway is the best of Britain's industrial heritage. It was the world's first steam-powered passenger railway.

Some may mock Sir Neil's predictions, but last weekend's collapsed Cavalcade of Stream gave an indication of its potential. Without a cavalcade, tourists from Germany, Holland, Belgium and Japan still came to the North-East to see the birthplace of the railways.

It is disappointing that the authorities are allowing this piece of prime industrial heritage to become overgrown and derelict, especially as it is a potential economic gold mine.