MEMORIES 267 and 268 took a ride in the mayor of Darlington’s enormous chauffeur-driven limousines from the 1960s. The first one an eight-seater top-of-the-range Humber Pullman which was followed by a gas-guzzling Chrysler Coronado, one of only nine ever made, and given to the town by the inward-investing Chrysler Cummins.

The Darlington mayors were not the only ones to travel in chauffeur-driven style. The Bishop of Durham also toured about the place in motoring luxury – and, on March 23, 1920, he was in his car when it accidentally ran over and killed the great-grandfather of Colin Woodward of High Shincliffe.

The unfortunate victim was Alexander Woodward, who was extremely well known in Darlington. He was born in Gateshead, lived much of his life around Hartlepool, but came to Darlington in the 1890s when he became district cashier of the North Eastern Railway. He was a magistrate, and a leading member of the Darlington Temperance Society.

At 9pm on the night in question, Mr Woodward, 70, and his daughter Catherine were returning from the Technical College to his home in Linden Avenue. As they were crossing Stanhope Road, the bishop’s car approached from Coniscliffe Road, causing Catherine to take her father’s arm, and say: “Mind, father, here’s car.”

Everyone agreed that if Mr Woodward – a vegetarian and an anti-vivisectionist – had continued to cross the road he would have made the pavement with ease. But he didn’t. He checked.

A witness said: “It appeared as though Mr Woodward lost his head, for instead of following Miss Woodward, he let loose of her arm, and turned back again.”

The car, containing the Bishop, the Rt Rev Hanley Moule, and a Darlington alderman, was only going at about eight miles an hour when it collided with Mr Woodward. The Bishop jumped out, but it was too late – Mr Woodward was trapped beneath the wheels.

The chauffeur, David Hubbins, jacked up the vehicle and extricated Mr Woodward. He was taken home in an ambulance, but died the next morning.

The jury at the inquest quickly decided that it was an accident, exonerated the chauffeur and expressed their sorrow to Mr Woodward’s family.

“The Bishop,” said the report in The Northern Echo, “felt his position most acutely, as the town had been deprived of one of its best citizens.”

A solicitor told the inquest: “Mr Woodward was devoted to every good cause, and his death under such tragic circumstances would not only be a loss to the Bench, but to the public life of the town.”

Less than two months later, the Bishop himself died of pleurisy.

THE Humber Pullman brought back memories for Margaret Crawford, from North Cowton. “I drove one of those as my father, Billy Irwin, owned Irwin’s taxis of North Road, Darlington, from the late 1940s until his sudden death in 1966,” she said.

Mr Irwin usually owned a couple of secondhand, black Pullmans, which could be used for weddings or funerals – although they needed a good hoover to suck up all the confetti inbetween.

“In summer, we took families door-to-door to their holiday destinations at Scarborough, Whitby or Bridlington, complete with luggage,” says Margaret. “It was more convenient for some people than carrying their luggage to and from the bus and train stations.”

Her picture shows two Pullmans at a wedding outside Cockerton Methodist Church. The rear Pullman was bought from Major Robert Lambton Surtees of Redworth Hall, near Shildon – presumably after his death in 1952. On its rear doors, you could see where the insignia of the Prince of Wales’ feathers had been, suggesting this had been a royal vehicle before Maj Surtees acquired it.

OUR car-spotters in Memories 266 reckoned that a distinctive-shaped van in Darlington’s Tubwell Row was nothing more special than a Ford Transit, but Gordon Ruth – a self-confessed “Bedford fan” – says it is a Bedford J1 with Hawson bodywork. To prove his point, he sends in a photograph of a similar vehicle which he spotted about 15 years ago when he worked at Sherwoods garage in Darlington.