THE From the Archive section in Memories 211 included a selection of pictures of the Framwellgate area of Durham City, including a grubby, but splendid, Georgian townhouse photographed in 1959 in Castle Chare. It appears to pre-date its neighbour, the Roman Catholic church of Our Lady and St Godric, which was built in 1864.

In recent years, the townhouse has been restored, converted into apartments and renamed St Anne's Court. Very splendid it looks, too.

Following Memories 211, Judith Vincent wrote: "My dad, Peter Richards, worked there in the early 1990s when it was a business premises. His office was the window directly above the front door.

"Prior to that it had been a convent for the adjacent school.

"I remember it had a spectacular plaster ceiling in what I assumed had been a ballroom, and there is also a lovely, long, arched top window at the rear, plus the view from the roof is spectacular.

"The house looks very Georgian in style but it would be interesting to know more about it's early history and why, despite the major developments that have gone on around it, the council saw fit to preserve it."

Can anyone tell us more?