“MY memory of Ramar coincides with the first six months of my railway career,” writes Eddie Scarlett from Huntington, near York, in response to last week’s spread of pictures of the Crook dress-making factory.

“In early 1952, I worked at Crook station from where a large proportion of Ramar’s output was despatched across the UK.

“Ramar parcels, each the size of a suitcase, were delivered to the station in the late afternoon every working day by a local road motor whose driver wore leather gaiters as if he was leftover from the horse and cart days!

“The parcels were checked and weighed, stamp-labelled to show the account holder and marked with a unique station number/letter code which guided them around the BR system – better than an address.

“Multiple parcels for the same consignee were bagged. They were placed in a large canvas bag fastened with an iron hoop and sealed for security.

“I started my career at my home station of Willington and both Crook and Bishop Auckland Goods were the highlights of the standard probationary period, which I remember with great affection.”

THE archive pictures in Memories 297 showed old Durham City, which prompted Shirley Armstrong from Coxhoe to tell us about the Princes ballroom in the Three Tuns Hotel, which was the place to go in the 1950s for a Saturday night dance.

“The cost was 2s 6d, and we got a taxi home for 2s 6d,” she says. “Norman Richardson and his band played – he was later the mayor of Durham, and had the city’s first travel agents in Claypath near the Palladium cinema.

“We thought the Princes was very posh, with its red velvet settees and oak chandeliers.

“I am 82 years old now, and remember all the happy times we had at the Three Tuns. I often wonder as I pass if the ballroom is still there, as I see it is for sale now.”