John McGowan-Fazakerley says he never questioned Jamie Varley’s devotion Preston Davey

A man accused of allowing the death of his 13-month old adopted son told a jury his trust in his murder accused partner was ‘misplaced’. John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, said he never considered Preston Davey was at risk of physical or sexual abuse from 38-year-old Jamie Varley.

Mr Varley is also on trial, and is accused of murdering the young child. On July 27, 2023, Preston was carried into Blackpool Victoria Hospital in cardiac and respiratory arrest. He died at 7.20pm.

A post mortem concluded Preston died from upper airways obstruction with experts stating he had been physically, psychologically and sexually abused in the four months he lived with the couple in Staining Road, Blackpool, the court heard.

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Peter Wright KC, prosecuting, said the risk to Preston was ‘foreseeable and indeed foreseen’ by the defendant four days earlier when it is alleged both men sexually abused the toddler in his cot, LancsLive reported.

A series of photos recovered from Mr Varley’s phone showed Preston ‘suspended’ over his cot bars. His lips were turning gradually blue in what the prosecution say was the aftermath of a serious sexual assault, the court was told.

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Mr McGowan-Fazakerley denied any form of sexual involvement with Preston and said he only saw the baby ‘fleetingly’ when he was called upstairs to see the ‘funny position’ Preston was in.

He said he told his partner to lie Preston down before returning downstairs to cook Sunday dinner. He only saw the photos when he was questioned by the police two years later, he said.

On his second day in the witness box, McGowan-Fazakerley said he ‘never questioned Mr Varley’s devotion to their adoptive son’. Mr Wright KC, prosecuting, showed a series of photos and videos which he suggested showed Mr Varley treating the tot as ‘a plaything.’

Mr McGowan-Fazakerley said: “I feel as if there’s information, messages, videos, pictures, that I wasn’t aware of. I feel at times that he’s prevented me from protecting him and doing something about it.”

When asked about a video recorded hours before Preston’s death, which showed the baby seriously unwell, he said: “Preston’s life was like an iceberg and there are things under the water that I didn’t know about.

“I feel… I feel that on the 27th July, that when Jamie took the video of him being poorly, I feel like if that was me and I saw that I would have acted, I would have took him to hospital….”

He said Mr Varley was his ‘best friend’ and he always felt they were honest with their thoughts and feelings. He said he did not see any signs of depression and was not aware of any ‘dark thoughts’ of drowning or suffocating the baby, as reported by a work colleague of Mr Varley’s earlier in the trial.

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Mr Wright KC said: “I’m going to suggest what happened to that little boy was both foreseeable by you and indeed foreseen. That’s the truth, isn’t it? Mr McGowan-Fazakerley replied: “No it isn’t. If I could have foreseen that happening and foresaw that happening it wouldn’t have happened. I would have took that little boy out.”

Asked by his own barrister, Anne Whyte KC whether he felt his trust in his partner of eight years was misplaced, the defendant replied: “Yes, I do feel like my trust in Jamie has been misplaced.”

Mr Varley, 38, is accused of murder; manslaughter; sexual assault of a child under 13; inflicting grievous bodily harm; five counts of child cruelty; and further counts of making, taking and distributing indecent images.

Mr McGowan-Fazakerley is accused of causing or allowing the death of a child; two counts of child cruelty; and sexual assault of a child under 13. Both men deny all the charges against them.

The trial continues

Molly-Mae Hague has given birth to her second child with Tommy Fury.

The former Love Island star confirmed the happy news in an Instagram post with the newborn on Tuesday night.

The 27-year-old shared a photo of her hospital bed, with partner Fury and their daughter Bambi looking down on the newborn.

In the snap, Hague was still wearing a hospital gown with a huge smile beaming down at the baby.

Hague has not yet shared the gender of the baby or their choice of name.

The beauty mogul captioned the post: ‘….and then there were 4,’ with a white loveheart.

It was clear Hague’s due date was imminent, as in her last Instagram post a week ago to celebrate her 27th birthday, she said she was ‘about to pop’.

The couple, who met on the ITV dating show in 2019, shared the news that they were expecting their second child in February.

Hague, who was by then six months along, shared a black and white montage of clips, including one of her daughter Bambi with a ‘big sister’ jumper on.

The couple welcomed Bambi in 2023 and got engaged later that year.

However, they shocked fans the following year with news of their split, amid rumours of infidelity.

MORE: Molly-Mae Hague admits she ‘spiralled’ over harsh comments after Venezuela Fury’s wedding

MORE: Truth behind Tommy Fury’s no-show at Venezuela’s wedding attended by pregnant Molly-Mae

The Topping & Company store, on the corner of Museum Street and Blake Street, is set to open its doors on Friday, June 5, at 10am.

Company director Saskia Topping said they could not wait to welcome customers to the shop.

It comes as works to convert the vacant building on the corner of Museum Street and Blake Street have been ongoing since the shop was approved.

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Company founder Robert Topping said told a City of York Council planning hearing in July last year it would be the largest independent book store to open in the country in living memory.

The York store is set to join other Toppings shops in Bath, Edinburgh, Ely and St Andrews.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) earlier this week, company director Ms Topping said people would soon be able to spend hours browsing their shelves in York.

The director said: “We’ve had lots of friendly faces peering in the windows whilst we’ve been getting the books on the shelves – it will be wonderful to fling open the doors and show everyone the space at long last.

Shelves with interior design books in the Topping & Company bookshop, in Museum Street, York

“It’s taken us four weeks to get all the books on the shelves, and hopefully in the right order.

“It’s such a big, labyrinthine space that one of our booksellers has drawn a map to help everyone find the right sections.

“We consider ourselves to be range booksellers – for us, there’s great joy in browsing a bookshop and not just finding the popular new titles, but a whole range of brilliant books that have been published in decades past, alongside those from smaller publishers that you might not find elsewhere.

“We want our bookshops to be spaces of discovery.”

A listed building consent application from Harrogate Tipple to create a beer garden at the back of The Little Ale House, in Stonegate, has been approved by City of York Council.

The company’s plans stated it would have space for about 50 people and bring a space by the Grade I-listed Norman House into use for its patrons.

Council planning officers stated the proposed works were acceptable and would preserve the special architectural interest and setting of the main bar building which is also listed.

They added separate planning permission would be required for the freestanding bar in the beer garden.

The plans follow the opening of The Little Ale House in the Grade II*-listed 46-50, Stonegate in December.

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Little Betty’s Café was previously based there until it closed in 2021.

An existing concrete and asphalt surface is set to be replaced with bricks or stone flags as part of the plans to convert the rear yard into a beer garden.

Timber benches, stools and picnic tables are set to be brought in along with moveable planters and pots while a dead tree will also be removed.

A timber-clad outdoor bar would be built and covered with a pitched slate roof if officials grant it planning permission.

Part of the ruins of Norman House run alongside the border of the courtyard where the beer garden is set to go.

An impression showing how the beer garden planned for The Little Ale House, in Stonegate, York, could look (Image: Harrogate Tipple/City of York Council planning portal)

The ruins are thought to be the remains of the oldest surviving domestic building in York.

Harrogate Tipple’s plans stated the works would replace the existing unattractive yard with a landscaped space which would the settings of the Norman remains and the business’ viability.

The application stated: “The existing courtyard is visually unattractive and inaccessible to patrons, yet it enjoys glimpsed views towards York Minster and the Norman House.

“Creating a small beer garden would support the viability of the new business, provide an outdoor meeting space in keeping with York’s tradition of courtyard inns, and give the public the opportunity to appreciate the Norman remains from within a managed environment.”

The plans were supported by York Civic Trust and Historic England stated they would provide a great opportunity to provide information about the medieval ruins.

No objections were lodged against the plans.

Council planning officers stated an interpretation for Norman House should be included as part of the redevelopment.

Officials said: “The proposed works for a free-standing bar to the rear of 46 Stonegate will require planning permission, neighbouring impact will be considered as part of a planning application.”

A member of the public made the discovery

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Human remains were found beside a busy road in Bristol by a member of the public on Tuesday night, June 2. Avon and Somerset Police says officers were called to Portway in Bristol following the discovery.

Officers said that although formal identification has yet to take place, the family of a man who was subject to a missing persons appeal has been informed.

Rebaz, 40, was last been seen on Monday, May 4, off Fishponds Road. Officers had launched a public appeal due to concerns about his welfare.

A statement from Avon and Somerset Police released on Wednesday reads: “Police were called to the Portway on Tuesday evening, June 2, by a member of the public who had found human remains.

“Sadly, our initial enquiries suggest the deceased is missing Rebaz, 40, from Bristol, who hadn’t been seen since Monday, May 4.

“While formal identification has yet to take place, his family have been informed and have our sympathy in their loss.

“Officers would like to thank everyone who contacted us with information or shared our appeal to trace Rebaz.”

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Ken Doherty will no longer compete on the professional snooker tour, but it’s fair to say he has made the most of his 36 years taking on the best players on the planet.

The 56-year-old confirmed on Wednesday that he is hanging up his cue when it comes to the professional game, still to play in seniors competition, but stepping away from the main tour he joined in 1990.

‘It’s been coming for a while,’ the 1997 world champion told Metro. ‘I was sad initially that I’m not going to be competing on the main tour anymore, but it’s probably relief as well. The time is right.’

One of the finest players in the world for much of the 90s and 00s, Doherty’s game started to slip after 20 years on tour and he says he has been hoping to rediscover the magic for a long while now.

‘I was trying to search for something, thinking maybe things will improve,’ he said. ‘I played with a new cue to maybe get a bit of confidence, but no, it’s just not there anymore.

‘You just come to realise you can’t play the way you used to and it becomes frustrating. You feel a bit embarrassed sometimes with your performances and I don’t want to go through that again.

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‘I’ll say thank you, I’ve had a great time, great memories. I’m delighted to have won the things I’ve done. Disappointed to lose some of the matches and finals that I’ve lost, but winning the World Championship was the greatest day of my life as far as being a snooker player’s concerned. And to do it with a £2 cue and against one of the greatest of all time was the icing on the cake.’

The 1997 World Championship win over Stephen Hendry was one of six ranking titles on Doherty’s CV, but he had a number of other close calls in big events.

Two more Crucible finals, three at the UK Championship and two at the Masters, with the Darlin of Dublin experiencing the vast difference between winning and losing those huge matches.

‘When I won it in ’97, I came home on an open-top bus, 250,000 people lining the streets. Then the following year after losing in the final to John Higgins, came back to Dublin airport the next day and I had to get a f***ing taxi home! That’s the difference between winning and losing in a final! But that’s life.’

Crafty Ken duked it out with legendary names for years, experiences that will live for him forever.

‘Playing all the greats: [Ronnie] O’Sullivan, [John] Higgins, Hendry, Jimmy [White], [Steve] Davis, playing all those great players, some of the greatest players that will ever play the game, that was a joy,’ he said.

‘That was a joy to compete against them and play them in big matches. And overcome them, not all the time, but I did overcome them through my career, I beat them all.’

The most testing opponents are of little surprise, with Doherty saying: ‘Stephen and Ronnie, John Higgins and Williams, they were the toughest.

‘They were the ones I loved to have battles with, funnily enough, even though they were the toughest. Whether it be at the Masters or the UK or the World Championship, playing those guys at those championships, they were great occasions. And that’s what I miss. Those big, big matches against the big players.

‘I think the best one was I played Ronnie in the final of the Irish Masters at Goffs [in 1998]. He beat me, he played really well. The atmosphere was electric, it was just amazing.

‘But of course he failed a drugs test, there was marijuana in his system, so he had to hand me the trophy and the cheque for an extra 30 grand. It was the most expensive joint that he ever smoked in his life! He never spoke to me for about six months afterwards.’

Outside of the most obvious nightmare foes, Doherty remembers one of his punditry colleagues being a serious test.

‘I tell you who was really tough and he was such a clever player who I loved playing against, because it was a battle of strategies, was Alan McManus,’ he said.

‘He was he was such a wonderful player, he knew every inch of the snooker table. They called him Angles because his safety was was second to none, he was brilliant. It was a great battle of mind games against him, he was a quality player.

‘Although he won the Masters, which was great, he doesn’t get the proper recognition that he probably deserves. But he was a top player for a long, long time.’

The 1997 Sheffield final will never be topped, but there are plenty of other contests that stick in the mind of the Irishman.

‘There’s a few finals,’ he remembers. ‘I beat John [Higgins 9-8] from 8-5 down in Malta in the final. And then both got so drunk we got thrown off the plane and we’re on the front pages and the back pages when I got home!

‘The Williams World final that I lost 18-16 in 2003, the semi-final against Paul Hunter from 15-9 down to to win 17-16. That was probably one of the greatest matches and greatest comebacks I’ve ever had. The UK final I lost 10-9 to Williams. That was in the same season, 2002-2003. He pipped me in two of the major finals that year. There’s been lots of great matches.’

Don’t worry, getting thrown off a plane with John Higgins the morning after the 2006 Malta Cup final does not pass by without explanation, as the two created a little slice of scandal.

‘We went out to a nightclub,’ said Doherty of hitting a Maltese town with Higgins after edging him in the final. ‘I got back at 5 o’clock in the morning. The taxi was already waiting for me outside the hotel when I staggered back in to to get my cue and suitcase.

‘I came downstairs, got into the taxi, we were driving to the airport and John was staggering up the road and he was on the same flight as me, the 7 o’clock flight.

‘I checked in and went up to the hotel bar and had another drink. Then John was last to check in, he made it and had another drink with me and then we got on the bus. His cue got stuck in the doors, and everybody started laughing, including me, but you know what my laugh is like, I don’t think people appreciated my laugh at 7 o’clock in the morning.

‘He was last on the plane. I managed to get on and sit down and the captain stopped him as he was staggering up the stairs and said he’s not travelling. I got up to defend him and say, “oh, he’ll be okay, just let him sit down, he’ll be fine.” But he said, “no, he’s not travelling and neither are you. You’re getting off with him!”

‘We got on a flight to Heathrow that night and there were three paparazzi waiting for us as soon as we get off the plane! We were on the front and back pages. Rock n roll.’

Some of that night in Malta might be a haze, but snooker has provided unforgettable moments away from the table for the Dubliner.

‘I think one of the favourites was when Alex Ferguson rang me up and invited me to Old Trafford to parade the trophy,’ he recalls. ‘First of all, I told him to f**k off because I thought it was one of my mates winding me up! He says, “Kenny, this is Alex Ferguson, and I’m not going to f***ing ask you a second time!”

‘So I got there and he took me down to meet the players. Eric Cantona came over and shook my hand. I went out on the pitch and my legs were like jelly carrying the cup. All the United fans singing “there’s only one Kenny Doherty” and all the West Ham fans in the away end singing “there’s only one Ronnie O’Sullivan!”

‘Playing a frame with George Best, shaking Muhammad Ali’s hand at the Sports Personality of the Year in 1999.

‘The Edge, tapped me on the shoulder once, when I was talking to Bono after one of their concerts. I was with Michael Stipe and Roger Taylor. The Edge says, “Ken, Ken, you wouldn’t do me a favour, would you? You wouldn’t come over and say hello to me mother and her two friends?” She had no interest in talking to Michael Stipe, Roger Taylor or Bono, but her and her friends absolutely loved snooker.’

As his professional playing days come to an end, there is a tinge of disappointment of how it has come about.

Doherty has been playing on an invitational tour card in recent years and he has no issue with that no longer being offered, but feels he could have been informed earlier than he was.

‘I don’t think the option was there anyway. They weren’t going to give me a card, so they sort of made my mind up for me, you know?’ Doherty said of retirement.

‘It would have been nicer to find out a little bit earlier, then I could have maybe planned something at the World Championship. The timing could have been a bit better, but it is what it is. I’m happy.’

Doherty’s final match proved to be a 10-5 defeat to Patrick Whelan in the first round of World Championship qualifying, which felt like the end even before the decision was made.

‘I think after this year’s World Championship I knew anyway,’ he said. ‘I tried to practice to have a good year and a decent run, but it just wasn’t there. I felt this could be my last game.

‘I knew it was coming, but I was putting it off, hoping, but in the end I probably could have done it a few years ago.

‘It’s just my love for the game, I wanted to keep on and keep searching for something and that will never die, your love for the game.

‘I’ll still play snooker because I love it and I will play exhibitions and I’ll still do shows and I’m still playing the seniors and I love that as well, but it’s not as much pressure, I can just relax. The time is right.’

Doherty will never be far from big time snooker, as a prominent pundit and commentator on major tournaments and still ready to play seniors events.

He remains and will continue to be one of the sport’s most popular figures and greatest ambassadors, and someone snooker should be grateful for.

‘Well, listen, it’s given so much to me, it really has,’ he said. ‘It changed my life and I’m just so humbled by the amount of support that I’ve had over the years, and not just from fans all over the world, but also the snooker community themselves.

‘I will cherish that. I’ll always try to promote the game as best as possible and I’ll continue to do that.’

MORE: Future of snooker’s Q School under review but ‘important role’ will remain

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Celebrity Gogglebox is back with a fresh batch of famous faces to comment on the week’s TV.

Joining the Channel 4 line-up this series are the likes of former Love Island star Olivia Attwood and Strictly Come Dancing runner-up George Clarke.

The series returns this Friday, with other showbiz names including Gladiators stars Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and Matt Morsia, as well as Chariots of Fire star Nigel Havers.

Attwood, 35, is set to appear alongside her mother Jennifer, in a duo she described as ‘chaotic but in the best possible way’.

The ex-Islander added: ‘It’s not often that we agree on things, which I think the viewers may find entertaining.

‘My family are huge fans of the show so it’s a real honour to be a part of such an iconic British programme.’

Meanwhile, bodybuilder Morsia, who is best known as Legends on Gladiators, said: ‘Everyone knows how good I am at being on TV, but turns out I’m even better at watching it.

‘Wow. Absolutely incredible sofa performance.

‘I had a great time on the show and I need to say a massive thank you to Gogglebox for literally paying me to watch TV. What a time to be alive.’

His co-star Aikines-Aryeetey, who competed alongside Clarke in the 2025 series of Strictly, said: ‘Filming Celebrity Gogglebox was pure fun from start to finish, just a proper night-in full of laughs, brilliant TV, and plenty of unexpected moments.

‘It was a really enjoyable experience and great fun to be part of.’

Clarke said filming Gogglebox gave him an excuse to tease his sofa partner and fellow content creator Max Balegde.

‘He reacts to everything, so you’re never bored. It’s so easy to get into as well, you just sit there, say exactly what you’re thinking, and before you know it, we’ve gone completely off track,’ he said.

Elsewhere in the line-up of Celebrity Gogglebox newbies, comedian and actor Julian Clary said of his contributions: ‘I do like to think my commentary brought a certain level of refinement to proceedings, and Nigel managed to stay awake, although there is an unsightly stain on my sofa.’

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While the series goes out this summer, Channel 4 will confirm additional famous faces to take up their sofas for national telly.

The cast members set to return include Vernon Kay and Paddy McGuinness, Shaun Ryder and Bez, Roman and Martin Kemp, Ashley Banjo and Perri Kiely, Nick Grimshaw and niece Liv, the Mangans, as well as Rylan Clark and his mother Linda.

They will be joined by Mo Gilligan and Babatunde Aleshe, Denise Van Outen and Johnny Vaughan and finally Vicky Pattison and Pete Wicks.

Celebrity Gogglebox on Channel 4 at 9pm on Friday.

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SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A museum in Georgia’s oldest city on Wednesday welcomed a truckload of treasures from the earliest period of U.S. history — 17 cannons that experts believe sank to the bottom of the Savannah River during the American Revolution and remained undiscovered for nearly 240 years.

Workers carefully hoisted the big guns one-by-one from the back of a truck and wheeled them inside their new home at the Savannah History Museum, which will put them on display just in time for the Fourth of July celebration of America’s 250th birthday.

“They look brand new,” said Andrea Farmer, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers archaeologist who was part of the team that researched and preserved the cannons. “They could pretty much be fired if someone wanted to.”

The artifacts were discovered in 2021 when a dredge scooping sediment from the riverbed as part of an Army Corps project to deepen Savannah’s shipping channel pulled up a cannon in its metal jaws. The crew soon dug up two more.

In the course of just over a year, a total of 19 cannons were hoisted from the location just downstream from Savannah, which is where Georgia was founded in 1733 as the last of Britain’s 13 American colonies.

After being pulled from the river, most of the cannons left Georgia for several years to undergo cleaning and preservation work at a Texas lab.

One of the Revolution’s bloodiest battles was fought in Savannah

Archaeologists initially assumed the cannons likely dated to the Civil War. But further research indicated they’re likely almost a century older and sank during the buildup to the American Revolution’s bloody siege of Savannah.

Savannah was under British occupation in the fall of 1779, when colonists planned an attack to retake the city with help from French allies.

When French ships carrying troops were spotted off the Georgia coast, British forces scuttled at least six ships in the Savannah River downstream from the city to block the French vessels.

The land battle that followed was one of the bloodiest of the war. British forces killed nearly 300 colonial fighters and their allies, and wounded hundreds more.

The Savannah History Museum sits right next to the battlefield. Its staff on Wednesday hoisted the cannons, weighing up to 1500 pounds (680 kilograms) apiece, onto custom display mounts that staffers likened to giant wine racks.

The cannons will be part of a new exhibit on Savannah’s role in the American Revolution, which is scheduled to open Fourth of July weekend, said Samantha Moss, the museum’s curator.

“Our great team has been prepping for months — building mounts and planning how we can safely display these very large, very special artifacts,” she said.

Cleaning the crusty cannons took years

Each of the iron cannons emerged from the river covered by a thick crust of mud and minerals.

Two were left in that raw state and put on display at the museum. The other 17 were sent to Texas A&M University, which has a lab that specializes in preserving underwater artifacts. Its staff spent years painstakingly cleaning the big guns and coating them in paint and wax to prevent rusting and corrosion.

“A lot of them have scour marks on the side from anchors or dredging, so there’s some scarring on the cannons,” said Chris Dostal, a professor of nautical archaeology who leads Texas A&M’s Conservation Research Lab. “But most of them look pretty exceptional.”

Most of the cannons arrived with wooden plugs still sealing their bores, which remained packed with cannonballs and gunpowder charges.

Dostal said radiocarbon dating of the wooden stoppers placed them roughly in the late 1700s. His team shared the cannons’ measurements and other details with experts in London, who concluded three of them were very likely forged by the British military.

The rest appeared to be of French design but bore no telltale markings. Dostal said he suspects those guns may have been cast in America around the time of the war.

Other artifacts found with the cannons included pieces of anchors and a portion of a ship’s bronze bell. Like the cannons, none of them bore engravings indicating which ship they came from.

That means many details of the cannons’ origins remain a mystery.

“You don’t have all of the information,” Farmer said. “You’re trying to piece it together as best as you can.”

Edmundbyers sits a few miles west of Consett on the edge of the North Pennines, just inside the County Durham border with Northumberland, and with a population of fewer than 200 people it has the feel, in the words of one visitor, of a place that has resisted the modern world almost entirely.

“It is in a wonderful location,” wrote one cyclist who stopped here on the Coast to Coast route, describing it simply as “a small village surrounded by moorland.”

That understatement does it justice.

Edmundbyers has evidence of prehistoric settlement from the Neolithic era, a 12th-century church that hid its stone altar from the Archbishop of Canterbury, a pub whose regulars have been coming for 40 years, and what is believed to be the oldest continuously running youth hostel in the North of England.

A name with roots in Old English

The village name itself tells a story. Edmundbyers derives from the Old English “Eādmund’s bur,” meaning Edmund’s dwellings, a combination of the personal name Edmund and “bur,” the dialect form of bower, meaning a dwelling or shelter.

An early record of the name lists the village as simply “Edminber.”

The first written mention of Edmundbyers appears in the Boldon Book, the survey commissioned by the Bishop of Durham in 1183, where it is recorded that “Alan Bruntoft holds Edmundbires for his service in the forest.”

By around 1382, the land had passed to Durham Cathedral, held by the Prior.

The church that hid its altar

The oldest building in the village is St Edmund’s Church, tucked into the western edge of the settlement with views over the fells.

Built around 1150, possibly on the site of an earlier pre-Norman structure, it is Grade II listed and contains evidence of Saxon architecture in its walls.

Inside, one of the church’s most remarkable features is its stone altar, hidden from authorities when such Catholic furnishings were banned by Archbishop Grindal in 1571 during the Reformation, and only rediscovered and reinstated when the building was restored in the 1850s.

Two Saxon-type grave covers are built into the walls of the porch, and the list of rectors displayed inside the church begins with Richard de Kirkeby in 1275.

Edmundbyers Cross, visible near the village, is one of only three wayside crosses remaining in its original position in County Durham, and the only known example on the ancient route between Stanhope and Edmundbyers.

The last witch of County Durham

One grave in the churchyard of St Edmund’s draws more curious visitors than any other.

Elizabeth Lee, who died in 1792 at the age of 87, is reputed to have been the last in a long line of witches said to have lived in and around Edmundbyers. She appears to have lived a full life, born around 1705, married to a John Lee who died in 1771, and regarded with deep suspicion by her neighbours for decades.

In death, she remained a figure of fascination.

Her grave has been visited for generations by those interested in the darker threads of Durham’s history, and in 2021, she was the subject of a commissioned poem for Durham Literary Festival.

(Image: Getty)

The ghost at Low House

A few steps from the church stands Low House, the building that has served as Edmundbyers Youth Hostel since it opened on April 1, 1933, making it one of the oldest continuously operating hostels in the North of England.

The building itself is far older, dating back to around 1600, when it was built as the Miners’ Arms to serve workers in local pits and mineral workings.

Today it is independently run, sleeping up to 31 guests across six rooms, with a bar serving locally brewed beer, a self-catering kitchen and a campsite in a walled garden.

It also reportedly comes with a ghost.

Ann Elliot, who was murdered on the moor and buried at St Edmund’s in 1785, is said to haunt the building. Visitors report nothing more alarming than a sound night’s sleep.

Derwent Reservoir

Two miles south of the village, Derwent Reservoir stretches across 1,000 acres of moorland and woodland on the Durham-Northumberland border.

Opened in 1967, it is one of the larger inland bodies of water in England and the main water supplier for much of Tyne and Wear.

The reservoir is a country park managed by Northumbrian Water and is free to visit, with a circular walk of around nine miles covering the full perimeter.

Red squirrels have been spotted in the surrounding trees, and the resident birdlife includes goldeneye, goosander, great crested grebe and, in winter, visiting flocks of teal and widgeon.

(Image: Sarah Caldecott)

One Tripadvisor reviewer described the circular walk as outstanding, writing: “The paths are well defined and you can soon lose the crowds. Parking is free of charge, and there is a cafe. Well worth a visit.”

Edmundbyers also sits on the Coast to Coast cycle route, and the 18-mile Derwent Reservoir cycling circuit, taking in the reservoir, Blanchland and the surrounding moors, starts and ends in the village.

The Derwent Arms

The village pub, the Derwent Arms on the village green, holds a Tripadvisor rating of 4.5 from 124 reviews, with visitors praising the home-cooked food, local real ales and six en-suite bedrooms.

One recent reviewer wrote: “Such a welcoming pub in a beautiful setting. The food was superb, freshly cooked, generous portions and reasonably priced.”

Another added: “Lovely warm atmosphere, great beer, fantastic food. Exactly what you want when you come off the moors.”

The pub is open for food throughout the week, and the six rooms make it a practical overnight base for walkers and cyclists exploring the wider Derwent Valley.

(Image: Inn Hospitality Group)

Getting there

Edmundbyers is on the B6306, approximately eight miles west of Consett and 17 miles south west of Newcastle.

The village is also served by a bus route between Shotley Bridge and Blanchland.

The nearest postcode for the village centre is DH8 9NL.

Three weeks on from when Lee went ‘missing’ after failing to arrive in the UK for a joint interview with Katie, here is what we know.

Last night Katie shared a video filmed inside a car where she discussed the effects of CBD oil. The view from the car appeared to show that the star was warmer climes in a foreign country, which would line up with the recent snaps taken of Katie at Gatwick Airport with a huge suitcase and her engagement ring firmly on her finger.

She revealed on Facebook that she is set to travel to Dubai to try and visit him in prison, but added: “I don’t know if I’m going to see Lee or I’m not when I get there and it’s a really weird feeling.”

Lee told Katie he was in Al Awir prison, also known as “Dubai Alcatraz” in a brief phone call last week, as he claims he was detained after being mistaken for a spy. It has not been confirmed by Dubai authorities that he is in prison, or was in fact charged with espionage.

While he has allegedly been in prison, he has unfollowed and followed Katie – the only person he follows on Instagram. His account also followed a woman dubbed “biker babe” who used to be on a millionaire matchmaker site, but she appears to have ultimately blocked his account.

The phone call about Lee’s whereabouts came after he’d been “missing” for almost two weeks, with Katie telling fans that her husband had been “kidnapped” and she had to get Interpol involved after as he was being taken to a “black site”.

Since this ordeal began in May, Katie has faced criticism for using Lee’s alleged arrest as a PR stunt to promote her CBD oil collaboration and her music. She has also been met with sympathy from fans who believe she had no involvement and is being “conned” by her husband.