DAVID SANDERSON’S letter had an air of triumphalism to it. “Not just the destination board, but the whole bus!” he began.

In Memories 219, there was a “snowy sign” which, as Memories 220 reported last week, turned out to be the destination board for Featherstone’s bus which ran between Hamsterley and Bishop Auckland in the 1950s and 1960s.

David Sanderson, though, has a picture of the very bus to which the destination board was attached – no wonder he sounded so triumphant.

Featherstone’s started life in the late 1920s as Prospect Coach Service in High Etherley, near Bishop Auckland – that is why in his picture, it says “Prospect” on the side of the bus.

“In the 1950s, when I became aware of them, they operated one service between Bishop and Hamsterley,” said David, of High Etherley. “The first vehicle left Bishop Auckland at 7.30am and then every 90 minutes until 9pm. This last trip was speeded up, as the bus was back at Bishop for 10pm. It was obviously a very relaxed schedule – one-and-a-half hours to cover no more than 14 miles.”

The bus was HL7528, a 1936 Leyland TS7 with bodywork by Charles H Roe of Crossgates, Leeds (which still builds buses today under the name of Optare). It had 32 seats and a front entrance up a couple of steps – before disability access legislation.

West Riding Autos of Wakefield bought it new, and Featherstone’s acquired it in 1946, when it was dark green with cream window surrounds.

“When it was withdrawn from service in 1958, it was apparently sold as a hen house and put in a field about half-a-mile west of Hamsterley,” said David. “That’s where your ‘snowy sign’ photograph was taken early in 1963, at the start of a very severe winter.”

David then moved away, only to return to the area some years later to discover that HL7538 had disappeared. What happened to it? Was it sold – for preservation or scrap? Did it disintegrate in the field? Did the hens mount a coup and demand a proper coop?

It would be fascinating to know what became of HL7538.

MEMORIES 219 featured German-made NSU Quickly mopeds, which were available in the 1950s and 1960s from many garages locally.

“NSU also manufactured another famous product which was distributed by St Andrew’s Motors in Parkgate, Darlington,” says Peter Tarn in Forcett. “This was the Max motorcycle.”

Peter knows all about Maxs, as he’s recently restored a 1955 example.

“The Max was a 250cc bike of advanced German design which first came to the UK in 1955,” he says. “It was a lot more expensive than British bikes of similar capacity, but the specification, which included a magnificent, fully sprung Denfield dual seat, attracted customers who appreciated its virtues.”

He finishes: “The capacity of all NSU Quicklys, by the way, was 49cc, not 90cc, as you stated.”

The article on NSU, which started in the 1870s manufacturing knitting machines, also noted that in the 1960s NSU made a car called a Wankelspider – we mentioned it purely because the name fascinated us.

Several people picked up on it. Eric Gendle in Middlesbrough, for one, said: “The Wankel engine works in a completely different way to a normal eternal combustion engine, and Mazda still uses one.”

John Biggs in Etherley Grange explained a little more: “The Wankel engine was developed by Dr Felix Wankel and, instead of having pistons, it had rotating trapezoidal ‘things’. The engine wasn’t reliable and warranty claims bankrupted NSU. It became part of the Auto Union, which made Audi, before becoming part of the VW empire.”

BLACK MAN’S CORNERS was clearly the Dead Man’s Curve of the A167. As we established last week, it was a notorious sequence of bends between Great Smeaton and Croft-on-Tees on the Great North Road.

“I remember that on the left hand side going towards Darlington, there were trees right up to the roadside,” says Tony Herrington in Coundon, “and there was always water running off the land so in winter the road was an ice trap, which caused numerous accidents.”

Until the 1960s, when the A1 was built, the Great North Road was the main road between London and Edinburgh. In 1973, the road – which is now the A167 – the corners were straightened.

“I can recall as a kid staying nearby at Thorntree farm, which was run by my aunt and uncle, and they often spoke about ‘Black Man Corner’,” says another Tony, Tony Crooks. “They used to speak of a shadowy ghostly figure of a man dressed in black who used to stand by the side of the road halfway round the first bend on foggy nights, who would then disappear.

“Maybe he was the victim of some fatal accident many years ago, hence the name of the corner.

“As a kid, I thought they were winding me up – but maybe not.”

Has anyone else seen, or heard of, the ghost of a man in black who haunts Black Man’s Corners, luring motorists to their deaths?