Porcini and tinned meat rule in old Durham town

There’s nowt as queer as folk, as they say up North, and they very possibly say the same thing at Waitrose HQ in sissy southern Bracknell.

Confused staff there have been grappling to get their heads round the sales figures from the supermarket store’s Durham branch, which seems to indicate that the town is in a state of cultural flux.

On the one hand Durham boasts a university with a reputation for attracting, for want of a kinder expression, posh Oxbridge rejects.

But on the other it is a town with a proud industrial and mining heritage that brooks no nonsense from public school types.

Perhaps that might explain the branch’s two best selling lines: corned beef and porcini mushrooms.