The German Sword-makers of Shotley Bridge.
This started out seven years ago as a local-history lecture for a friend of mine.
Once I started research I realised the same erroneous story had been regurgitated over and over with only two or three chroniclers adding fresh information to the tale.
The more I searched, the more I realised why.
This had been a deliberate fabrication of a facade back in 1685 to disguise the true purpose of the enterprise.
I have made the resulting book a free download to the people of the village from the 'Shotley Bridge Village Trust' website until the BBC broadcast a documentary based on my research when it will become a hard copy companion publication.
In the meantime, anyone interested can download the complete book free as a pdf from here:
https://shotleybridgevillagetrust.com/