I HAVE a summer's worth of wanderings to upload on the blog at some point, but I'm so excited by what I found on the edge of Teesdale at the weekend that it is jumping the queue and going up first.

It's a fireplate. You should have heard the cries of dismay in the car on Sunday when we had to turn round and go back for a second look. The family thought we'd done with fireplates after a long infatuation which resulted in the vain thought that I'd logged just about there were to log in this area.

Then in Newsham - a village just north of the A66 near the Morritt Arms at Greta Bridge - I spotted another one.

It is on an attractive house which has "IW 1756" over the door, although the fireplate is not that old.

It is a coppery green one which has rather stained the vibrant beige stone beneath it, although fortunately the owners haven't been worried by this.

Above a sheaf of corn it says "Fire & Life", and underneath it says "Farmers".

It is from The Farmers and General Fire and Life Insurance Company which was founded on March 25, 1840, by William Shaw, the founder of the Royal Agricultural Society. Based just off The Strand, it was the first insurance company to offer indemnity against damage to crops by hail, and it specialised in insuring farmers against all kinds of losses to their stock and their buildings. It even insured the farms at Windsor Park and so was informally known as "the Royal Farmers".

This plate is from after 1843 and before the Royal Farmers merged in 1888 with the Alliance insurance company. I think the corn and the lettering were originally painted gold with a green background.

Loads of other entries on this blog, and in Echo Memories, explain the reason for fireplates, and I guess this one must have been a really good boast for the householder: was he the first in the village who was wealthy enough to insure his stock and to ensure the rest of the villagers knew he was wealthy enough?