Northumbria at War explores war and conflict in Northumberland and Durham from the Celtic age to modern times.Rebellion, feud and civil disorder have smoldered and crackled across the North, destroying powerful families and local communities alike. Derek Dodds reconstructs these epic struggles, setting them in the context of their tumultuous times and recalling the human bravery and frailty that influenced their outcome.This account is based on Dod...

Stretching almost 40 miles between the rivers Derwent, Tyne and Tees, and contained roughly by the Pennines to the west and the North Sea on the east, County Durham has retained a unique sense of identity and independence. For many centuries it was indeed a place apart, a territorial buffer against invading Scots. A sense of belonging and collective pride was born there and continued afterwards in the close-knit communities of the region’s more recent industrial past. Encompassing three gr...

Of all the counties, Durham is perhaps the most surprising. Its heavily populated cities and towns give way to apparently deserted expanses of moorland, romantic clifftop vistas and wooded ravines and in the midst of this bewildering diversity are objects of great architectural and historical merit. Yet amongst these more well known features are a host of lesser known, more obscure and unusual objects which are waiting to be discovered. Curiosities of County Durham is enthusiastically devo...

The historic city of Durham attracts many visitors each year. They are drawn to its iconic buildings, particularly the great Norman cathedral and castle as well as the surrounding and relatively unspoilt medieval town. In this tour of the famed city, fifty of these wonderful structures will be showcased. It features the most renowned buildings of course but then goes beyond the ancient town core to describe Durham’s flourishing university campus as well as bridges, chapels, theatres and pu...

Hebburn History Tour is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this South Tyneside town. This is an exciting guided walk around the well-known places of the 200-year-old town and explains what they meant to local people throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. Readers are invited to follow a timeline of events and watch the changing face of Hebburn as Derek Dodds guides us through its streets.

This illustrated history portrays one of England’s finest counties. It provides a nostalgic look at Durham’s past and highlights the special character of some of its most important historic sites. The photographs are taken from the Historic England Archive, a unique collection of over 12 million photographs, drawings, plans and documents covering England’s archaeology, architecture, social and local history. Pictures date from the earliest days of photography to the present and cover subje...

Durham City is a remarkable place, a priceless historical gem and, deservedly, a World Heritage Site. Over 1,000 years Durham’s great beauty and history has inspired many architectural descriptions and guides. This book follows in their footsteps but then takes a different path. Wandering through the cathedral’s darkened cloisters, the city’s narrow medieval streets and the river’s winding pathways, Secret City of Durham is one man’s view of this famed peninsula – an occasionally quirky to...

In the space of just 200 years Hebburn has been transformed from a small fishing hamlet into a modern town of 20,000 inhabitants. The driving force in this expansion was of course the development of industry, in particular coal mining and shipbuilding. Indeed, these two industries, and the arrival of the railway in 1872, meant that Hebburn thrived in the nineteenth century. During the twentieth century, Hebburn's fortunes were in the hands of modern engineering companies. Like many of its ...