PEOPLE are being invited to take a trip into Durham's heritage and history - with a pint in their hand.

Tonight, a free tour of four of the city's oldest pubs is being held as part of the Heritage Open Days programme.

"It isn't a pub crawl, it is a tour - although there will be time to have a pint,'' said Tracey Ingle, Durham City Council's head of cultural services.

"It is a nice way of linking into the past. Pubs are very much part of the story of how people from the rural areas interacted with the market city.''

The tour starts at the Half Moon, New Elvet, at 7pm, and will visit the Dun Cow, in Old Elvet, the Victoria, in Hallgarth Street - which has changed little since the late 19th Century - ending at the Shakespeare, in Saddler Street.

In recent years. plans to modernise the Half Moon and the Shakespeare provoked such an outcry that the owners abandoned the plans.

Durham Prison Officers' Club, in medieval farm buildings in Hallgarth Street, dating from the 14th and 15th Centuries, will open to visitors on Sunday, from 1.30pm to 3.30pm.

Sunderland Volunteer Life Brigade will open its headquarters at The Watch House, Pier View, Roker, on Sunday, from 11am to 5pm.

Visitors will have a chance to see, hear and even play an old cinema organ, courtesy of the Sunderland Theatre Organ Preservation, on Sunday, from 11am to 4pm, at the Ryhope Community Association, Ryhope Street, Ryhope.