Villagers have said prayers for a father and daughter who died in a Northumberland boating accident.

Geoff Wilkinson died as he tried to save his 17-year-old daughter, Victoria, when their dinghy capsized on Kielder Water last Sunday afternoon.

Mr Wilkinson, 52, suffered a heart attack after diving in after his daughter, who it is thought became trapped under the boat at the countryside beauty spot.

Tributes were paid last night to a father who died trying to save his teenage daughter from drowning during a boating accident.

Geoff Wilkinson, 52, suffered a heart attack attempting to rescue 17-year-old Victoria when their dinghy capsized on Kielder Reservoir in Northumberland on Sunday afternoon.

Colleagues of Mr Wilkinson, a solicitor for Cumbria County Council for the past 13 years, spoke of their devastation at his death.

Today marks a special day on the North East calendar as we celebrate the life of the patron saint of Northumberland, St Cuthbert.

Often regarded as the most popular saint of medieval times and one of the most important, March 20 sees people celebrate the anniversary of the death of the region's own patron saint.

Pilgrims make their way across the causeway to Holy Island on Good Friday, 2006

Born in 634 AD, Cuthbert was born in the Lammermuir Region where he grew to work as a young shepherd.

Retired rural clergyman Richard Ferguson may be approaching 70 - but he is still blessed with a memory of biblical proportions.

Several years ago he spent nine months writing his own personal translation of the entire Gospel of St Mark from the original Greek, and last year published the mammoth work as a 190-page book.

Amazingly, he has committed all 640 verses of the text - amounting to many thousands of words - to his memory and is able to recite the whole lot unaided.