| Where | Great Broughton Village Hall | Type of Event | Illustrated Talk |
| When | Monday 16th February 2026 at 7.30 pm | Tutor | Dave Dean |
The lecture was delivered by Dave Dean who has given talks on a variety of topics over many years. He has regular engagements with other societies and has a friendly and entertaining style. We had a good sized audience of more than thirty, and the audience was not disappointed with the talk given as it was by an enthusiastic speaker The idea behind the talk was that there are many stories of the area which have been shrouded by the mists of time. The material used was not that usually found in the history books. The talk was comprised of a selection of stories. The themes included events which were hidden, or lost, or involved deception or which could be termed as secret.
The first story was of the deception created by the Starfish sites. Officially they were Special Fire Sites designed to trick enemy aircraft in World War 2 into dropping bombs in the wrong place and not damaging important areas. There are a few to be seen in plain sight but today are often passed unnoticed. Dave mentioned one at Great Burden. There is another close by at Percy Rigg.
The second was of the large petrified forest which lies off the north east coast under water and sand. Dave showed how it was revealed during the recent weather event known as “The Beast from the East”. It could be seen clearly at Seaton Carew and Redcar.
The third story was to explode the myth that Berwick on Tweed was still at war with Russia because of fault in the wording of the peace treaty after the Crimean War.
More dramatic was the fire which was feared might engulf Newcastle and Gateshead in the 19th century. A massive fire and devastating explosions were prevented from creating a catastrophe because of the utilization of fire firebreaks, but the fire cost many lives.
The next tale was of a lA battle between Northumbrians and Vikings which the Northumbrians won. But no one seems to know where it was. There is no such place. It is probably in the Auckland area and the name is probably a composite to two other names. It seems that twenty years later the Vikings came back, fought a weak Northumbria and won. And that was probably the origin of what became known as the Danelaw and its territory.
There were numerous other stories based on accidents and personal, individual bravery, particularly that of the Canadian air force pilot, McMullen, over Darlington, but the final one was based on secrecy. The Auxiliary Units set up in World War 2 to engage in guerrilla warfare in the event of an invasion had secret bunkers in this area, as well as others. From these bunkers would emerge trained people with orders to commit acts of sabotage and violence outside the normal rules of warfare. As it turned out there was no invasion and so there was no such action. Locally, there was one at Dromonby.
This was an entertaining and engaging lecture.
There were questions. An enjoyable evening.