OH dear! Our car-spotters were far from unanimous when they identified the old vehicles parked in November 1962 behind Central Hall in Darlington – Charles Dickens, you may remember, appeared at Central Hall and so we published the picture a fortnight ago.

The most contentious of the vehicles was the one nearest the camera. Half of our correspondents said it was a Ford Anglia – “an E494A, my first car, bought for £4 which was half my week's wages!” said Ian Gravestock in Yarm.

The other half said it was a Ford Prefect. “This was a pre-war design with an 1172cc side valve engine and was in production until 1953,” said Gerald Burnett of Richmond.

After such controversy, the identifying of the other vehicles was plainer sailing. From right to left a Humber Hawk, from the early 1950s; a Jaguar (either a Mark 7, 8 or 9, people couldn’t agree); a Jaguar Mk 2 compact saloon – Inspector Morse drives one of these); and finally an Austin, with most people plumping for a Cambridge from 1955 to 1958.

“It must have been a posh event in the hall with a line up of such expensive and prestigious vehicles,” noted Derek Noble of Hutton Rudby.

Some people spotted a Ford Anglia in the background, and Richard Stone pointed to the bottom right where he saw “the distinctive rear end of either an Austin A30 van or it's more 'sophisticated' A35 successor”.

“Of particular note is that all the vehicles were British built,” said Tony Tomalin-Reeves of Easingwold. “They were products of Coventry, Birmingham and Dagenham – the tsunami of foreign vehicles would shortly be hitting the UK!”

Many thanks to everyone who had a go, with honorary mentions to Mark Cooper of Darlington, and Edward Brown of Low Row.