History

Shoppers throng outside Binns at the southern end of Darlington's High Row in the mid 1960s. Opposite it is the Fleece Hotel, an attractive-looking building, which was demolished in 1969 and replaced by the disappointing shop now occupied by Boyes

Looking Back: End of retailing era for towns

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These ladies seem untroubled by the peril they are placing themselves in, but 150 years ago

On This Day, June 8: Fraud scandal at the paper mill

SOCIAL HOUSING: The restored Haughton Road engine shed, as seen this week, as it nears the end of its conversion. The housing on top of the roof is a clerestory - a ventilator that let the steam and smoke from the engines escape

175-year-old Grade II listed Darlington engine shed converted into social housing

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The gardens of historic Thornton Hall are open to the public on Monday. Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT

The blocked windows and secret tunnels of Thornton Hall

Middleton (-in-Teesdale) station was built about a mile south of the town on the south side of the river

The day rail came to Teesdale - 150 years ago

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CHAMPS: Mary Lyons, above, and the Blyth Spartans, left, with their centre-forward Bella Reay, pictured in the front middle

When Mary Lyons roared at a women's football match 100 years ago today

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A 1926 aerial view of York Castle area showing Clifford's Tower and the men's prison surrounded by a wall - in here, Kitching was held and executed in 1890-91

Last letter from hook-handed police killer from condemned cell at York castle

BLAST PROOF: The shelters in a Weardale quarry, probably Ashes, run by the Ord and Maddison firm

Sombre beginnings to Stanhope & Tyne Railway when runaway train killed man and boy

Teesside 500 bus by David Thompson

Column goes from post to pillar

Richmond market place in 1860 would have been recognisible by the mystery diarist

Diary reveals life 250 years ago

From the D&S of April 13, 1968: the last pupils of Wensley school, and their teacher Mrs Joan Duffield, which was to close after 103 years. The children appear to be standing in the main A684 road. The school, at the top end of the village, is now a priva

On This Day, April 13: 'Cops can't catch The Thing'

The "Tate Testimonial" – the original name of the Richmond lower school, seen here in 1956 with the castle behind

Grand day for the Tate Testimonial

Looking south at Scotch Corner in the late 1960s, before work on the motorway began. Picture courtesy of Durham Constabulary and Darlington Centre for Local Studies

Life and times of Scotch Corner take a new turn

Arkengarthdale in December 1962 – 150 years ago, it was the scene of a very curious "riding of the stang" incident which involved someone putting gunpowder down the wrong chimney. If you can tell us anything about the bus which is stopped outs

Looking Back: Riding the stang in Arkengarthdale and lighting a beacon in Richmond

Wrights' confectionery shop in Northallerton High Street in 1910

A Northallerton sweet shop through the ages

A Martian from the Smash adverts who, 50 years ago, was coming to Catterick Bridge

An odd Oddfellow, and a jolly Martian

Environment Secretary Michael Gove. Picture: Stefan Rousseau / PA Wire

Rishi Sunak: Two ways to help our small farmers

Florence Easton as Lauretta at the world premiere of Gianni Schicchi on December 14, 1918, at the New York Met

The Teesside songbird who became a global opera star

Northallerton Rialto Mandolin Band, featuring Great Aunt May, in 1906

Before the last picture show

The Toll Booth in Topcliffe in 2000. It escaped the demolition planned 50 years ago and is now a Grade II listed building

On This Day, Friday, March 2: Mysteries of aliens and kings

SECRET STONE: The Butter Stone near Cotherstone. Picture courtesy of Hugh Mortimer

10 of Teesdale's strangest secrets

Elizabeth Pease Nichol, an early campaigner for women's suffrage

Darlington's overlooked heroine Elizabeth Pease

The lounge at Teesside airport 50 years ago, when it was announced that you could now fly to Dublin, Jersey, the Isle of Man and Glasgow – will we ever see such routes again?

D&S readers' help needed over fatal Spitfire accident memorial

Suffragette Emily Davison died after trying to pin a rosette on the king's horse in the 1913 Epsom derby. Her body was followed through the London streets by 5,000 suffragettes watched by 50,000 people to King's Cross station where it was loaded o

Standout suffrage signatories

THE FIRST: Jane Proctor, the founder of Polam Hall School who signed the first women's suffrage petition in 1866

Suffragettes 100 years on: From the Darlington women who signed first petition to the campaigners force fed in Newcastle jail

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Aske Hall, near Richmond, the home of Sir Laurence Dundas, the 1st Earl of Zetland, and patron of George Cuitt

On This Day, February 2: Artist George's double centenary

MYSTERY: The engine called Darlington FC outside the Stooperdale paint shops in the town - but where is one of its nameplates?

What happened to the Darlington FC nameplate from this B17 class engine?

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This postcard sent in by Rodney Wildsmith shows some splendidly dressed railwaymen

History buffs - who can tell us more about this locomotive and the splendidly dressed men on it?

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A pre-Second World War postcard of Healaugh and Mount Calva, or Calver, near Reeth, where 150 years ago, there was a huge nitro-glycerine explosion

On This Day, January 26: Risks faced by early air pioneers illustrated by 1918 fatal accident

Mary Anna Hodgkin (1840-1928) and Jonathan Backhouse Hodgkin (1843-1926) sitting in their summerhouse with Elm Ridge in the background. Picture courtesy of the Darlington Centre for Local Studies

On This Day, January 12: No saxe please, we're British

VILLAGE LADS: Taken, we think, on the green with large walls of the large houses of High Green behind them. From left to right: L Colling, T Race, G Shepherd, W Oxley, B Shaw and D Allan – Mr Allan appears to be wearing a service uniform

Can you provide any information about these old villagers – and drinkers – of Gainford?

The Hurworth Hunt meets at the Croft Spa Hotel in January 1909. The patches of grass outside the hotel are known as "Smugglers Green" but no one really knows why – unless you can tell. Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk

On This Day, January 5: 'Elegant and varied toilets'

Brig-Gen Bradford's souvenir card which was given to each of his men in the 9th Durham Light Infantry shortly after Christmas 1917. This example is in the new exhibition, When the Bugle Calls, in Bishop Auckland Town Hall

Ding dong merrily up high

VIGILANTE PUNISHMENT: A picture entitled Riding the Stang from George Walker's Costume of Yorkshire, published in 1814

A bit of scrap and tickle

ON THE A68: AA Box 535 was at Carterway Heads, which we think was where the A692 joined the A68 at Castleside, near Consett. The phone number here was Shotley Bridge 70.

Old photos from the time when there was a RAC and AA roadside emergency phonebox on every major road

Stokesley Town Hall where a luncheon to celebrate the opening of a new bank was held exactly 50 years ago. This picture, though, was taken exactly 55 years ago, and we use it because our old car spotters will no doubt delight in telling us the identity of

On This Day, December 8: The men who didn’t come home

RAIL HANDOVER: Chairman of Darlington FC John Neasham, right, receives the nameplate from the scrapped steam engine in December 1960 from a British Rail official

Darlington Hippodrome has had an engine named after it - but it's not the first to bear the name “Darlington”

A magnificent picture of Robert Lancaster, the charismatic landlord of The George Inn at Piercebridge, who died 100 years ago. Even his dogs are looking in awe at him

On This Day, December 1: A landlord steeped in history

Frenchgate, Richmond, which was the scene of a

On This Day, November 24: Riotous assembly riding the stang

The dining room in Streatlam Castle with John Bowes' ceiling showing 600 years of his family's coat of arms – the ceiling is one of the most unusual items in the next exhibition. Picture courtesy of Country Life

Streatlam Castle - once the home of John Bowes

Jonathan Aitken in 1967 outside his home in Sutton on the Forest, near York

On This Day, November 17: Boneshaker accident and Aitken's political mishaps

The Darlington Hippodrome in 1910 advertising the appearance of La Milo, a rather saucy semi-nude act

Rebirth of a 'palace of varieties'

Yes, you've seen this picture of Skeeby in the early 1950s before, but this week we've got answers

The Skeeby saloon mystery is solved, but what's the other car?

From the D&S Times of November 10, 1917

November 10: Egon bemoans mutton's loss

Quick facts about Locomotion No 1 - the world's most pioneering passenger steam engine

Quick facts about Locomotion No 1 - the world's most pioneering passenger steam engine

St Barnabas' Church in Thornton le Moor was demolished in 1987 after its partial collapse the year before

November 3: Time marches on, but history repeats itself

Check her pockets – Her Majesty the Queen leaves Darlington Town Hall on October 20, 1967

October 27: Thief struck during Queen's visit to Darlington

George Butterfield, Darlington's first Olympian, whose death was announced 100 years ago this week

October 20: Darlington's first Olympian gave supreme sacrifice on the battlefield

ASTONISHING SIGHT: The interior of the former Swedish Church in Middlesbrough is a stained glass artwork shipped as a single piece from Sweden in the early 1960s

The art of glass comes to life in a one-time seamen’s mission

Work progressing in June 1969 on the quarter-of-a-mile long dam at Cow Green, which holds back 40,000m litres of water

October 13: 50th anniversary of reservoir work is a blast from the past

FROM THE AIR: Crook in June 1962 with the railway arcing across the top of the picture

A ropey rail service that travelled along a gentle arc

TIMES CHANGE: Bondgate, Darlington, in the late 1920s, with a D&S sign on the extreme right of the picture

Darlington & Stockton Times 170th Anniversary: Resolute and steadfast, refusing to bow to the whims of fancy

Lady Sarah Carpenter, of Kiplin Hall, who married 200 years ago on Sunday

Countess with an X to bear was quite a catch as heiress to Kiplin Hall

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