TOMORROW'S Echo Memories is to be a follow-up to that of a fortnight ago about Harperley - a truly haunting place. For Dave Chapman, it was not haunting in the spooky sense but because it was where he spent his happy childhood. This is his reminiscence in full:

Your article on Harperley brought back many memories to me. I lived at No 2 Station Cottages from being born in 1944 until the age of seven in 1951, and I worked at Low Harperley Farm from 1959 to 1965.

The farm was owned by Charles Johnston and he told me about the ghostly coach which was rumoured to travel through the farmyard. However, I never saw anything of it. I also worked many hours in the farm garden. I did not know about or find any treasure (Memories told how Durham Cathedral's silver plate was buried at Low Harperley Farm in about 1640). If I had known about it, I would have dug deeper.

The Station Cottages were situated about 400 yards down the railway track from the station. They were next to the wooden chapel I think this must have been the mission hall you mentioned in your article. I can remember being in the chapel many times.

Our house had no electricity, gas or water. We used candles, paraffin lamps and water came from a pump in the garden. In the winter the pump would freeze and we used to go into a nearby wood to get water from a spring.

I had three brothers and three sisters. I think we were the original railway children as we spent many hours playing around the signal box and station, although we were told never to come near when the dreaded inspector was there. We would help pull the levers in the signal box and when the goods trains passed through we would have the honour of standing on the platform and holding out a hoop with the points key on it. The fireman would reach out of the train and collect it.

When the train came back down the line, we would collect the hoop from the fireman as the train went speeding past - no thought for health and safety.

One of my sisters went to Darlington Grammar School and the train would stop out side the house to pick her up on a school morning - you do not get service like that these days.

We spent many happy hours swinging on the railway crossing gates. We would wait for the odd car coming and open the gate, let the car through the first gate, run across the track, open the second gate and wave the car through after checking for trains. The drivers then give us a half-a-penny.

The best customers were the Brown family who lived in Blackbanks, a house in the forest on the other side of the river to Harperley. They had two cars. One which they garaged on our (east) side of the river, and another which they kept on the west side to take them up to their house. They crossed the river on foot by a rickety old wooden bridge which would not take the weight of a car.

We would also wait at the crossing gate for the postman. He would nearly always have something for us - a piece of homemade toffee, a piece of string; during the summer it would be fruit from Low Harperley Farm orchard, although my older brothers would help themselves from the orchard.

We had our own names for several places like Browns Bridge, Sandy Bottom, The Plank and The Island of Forgotten Fruit.

Sandy Bottom was an area of the river which had a small sandy area like a beach. It was our favourite place for swimming.

The Plank was a plank of wood which was used as a bridge across the river near our house there is a footbridge there now. The plank was attached to a tree at one side by a piece of rope. When the river flooded, the plank would be swept to the side and held by the rope. When the flood subsided, we would plodge across the river and replace the plank on the far bank.

The Island of Forgotten Fruit was in the river. It had blackberries, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, a plum tree and an apple tree. Sadly, the island is no longer there washed away in a flood probably.

My elder brother Derek, who is 80 this year, remembers another train derailment (see tomorrow's Memories for the story of the 1901 accident at Harperley) in 1948 or 1949 about 400 yards past Station Cottages. The River Wear, which runs alongside the track, had flooded and washed the bank side away. The first train from Wolsingham the next day came off the rails.

Later, he and another of my brothers went to look. They climbed into the guards van and found that the guard had left his lunchbox which contained two boiled eggs.

They ate one each.

Harperley is a beautiful place and will always have a place in my heart.