HARD to get anyone more responsible for the making of Middlesbrough than ironmasters Bolckow and Vaughan. They formed the formidable partnership which developed the town. The two men turned Teesside into the iron capital of Europe, if not the world, employing thousands of people, and they also got on pretty well Henry Bolckow and John Vaughan married sisters and enjoyed each other's company. Bolckow was a man of capital and Vaughan a man with experience in the iron trade. It was a business partnership made in heaven. The history of the pair features in a new book from Bernie McCormick's stable of local history treasures which includes L S Lowry - the ‘stick man’ artist who stopped

for lunch at the Wilson’s Arms pub in Middlesbrough and mischievously praised a painting on the wall so everyone would think it was a masterpiece. The men who made the North-east great are there too, including Sir Joseph Swan, Joseph Whitworth and George Hudson of railways fame. The book is on sale at Waterstones and the Information Office in Middlesbrough,

NORTHERN FOLK 2 by Bernard McCormick

A HOME-produced collection of pictures by the Newton Aycliffe historian Bernard McCormick, who was born in the village of Coxhoe a couple of miles from Durham City - that connection is probably why he sub-titles his book "God's Country". Coxhoe is a mining village, which had a stop on the Clarence Railway. But there is more to it than that. Coxhoe Hall's greatest claim to fame is that it was the birthplace in 1806 of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She was baptised at nearby Kelloe Church in February 1808, and her family moved to Herefordshire the following year. She later wrote the famous poem How Shall I Love Thee and married fellow poet Robert Browning. Mr McCormick's book tells how the Hall fell into the possession of the National Coal Board. During the Second World War, it housed Italian and German Prisoners of War, and afterwards was pulled down. "When it was decided to demolish Coxhoe Hall and create the waste tip, it must have been by people not aware of the wonderful history they were destroying. The book is available from most bookshops, or in Coxhoe from Laing's newsagents, the Workingmen's Club and Cricketers' Hotel, or from the author on

01325-311956 or bernie@bermac.co.uk.

PICTURES AROUND COXHOE by Bernard McCormick

(Bermac Publications, £6.99)

This is the special collection of essays by local history enthusiast Bernard McCormick, who lives in Newton Aycliffe. A former Bowburn miner who later ran a designer clothing business. Mr McCormick is compiling biographies of Northeast notables who shaped the towns we live in today.

In his second volume, he presents another 12, starting with Charles Parsons who built the Turbinia and ending with Bolckow and Vaughan, who wrought Middlesbrough. In between, are William Coulson, the sinker; John Harrison, the clockmaker; George Hudson, the railway king, and LS Lowry, the painter.

Mr McCormick fears that knowledge of these people will fade away as not only they recede into the distant past, but their biographies become increasingly hard to find.

The aim if his self-published bite sized biographies is make sure that this knowledge remains readily accessible and easily digestible.

He probably has a point: how many of the thousands of day-trippers who flock to admire the glorious rhododendrons of Cragside in Northumberland know how the Parsons family made their money?

And one of life’s burning questions must surely be how a bloke called Bolckow could end up building Middlesbrough, his un-English name united with that of Vaughan so permanently that they might have been joined in wedlock?

Mr McCormick provides the answers (the German Bolckow and the Welsh Vaughan met when courting a pair of sisters in Newcastle and became brothers in law). His book may have rough edges, but his loves of his subject – and his knowledge – certainly shine through.

NORTHERN FOLK 2 by Bernard McCormick

(Bermac Publications, £6.99)

Pictures around Coxhoe 2 by Bernard McCormick

(Review by Chris Lloyd " The Northern Echo")

The second volume of pictures from "God's Country", as Bernard McCormick calls Coxhoe. As the first volume has sold so well a reprint is on the cards, plenty of people appear to agree with him. Even Kevin Keegan is listed among his subscribers.

In this volume, McCormick concentrates on the people of Coxhoe rather than on street scenes and he fills the pages with their pictures and memories. It is sure to fascinate all Coxhoians, but may not travel much further afield.

It is available from bookshops including Ottakar's in Darlington, or from the author on (01325) 311956.

Troubled Collieries 2 - by Bernard McCormick,

(Review by Sarah Iveson " The Gazette")

This book commemorates the men who lost their lives in the mining disasters around the country, focusing particularly on the Northeast. It includes chapters on Wingate and Trimdon Grange, and was reprinted to include Seaham Colliery, Branspeth, east Hetton (Kelloe) and Wingate.

Bernie, who was born in Coxhoe, worked at Bowburn Colliery for 5 years after leaving school. After national service, he worked in engineering before running designer clothes business." Like the men who lost their lives in the two main world wars, and are remembered each year, it is only right and proper that the men who lost their lives in the mines should also be remembered,"he writes in his preface"