Paula Kitching invites us to look at Barnard Castle with new eyes.

Over the summer there was a lot of talk about Barnard Castle – I won’t go into the politics, but it did make me reflect on the actual town of Barnard Castle. Growing up, it was one of my favourite places. I grew up in a fairly unremarkable town not far away, which had a significant claim to railway and Quaker history but it did not have a castle right in its centre, Barnard Castle on the other hand did. Castles are exciting, they represent a very physical tie with the past and they often represent (in the mind of a small child at least) a past of adventure, excitement and knights...