ECHO Memories recently contained a spread of photos from our Shildon archive.

Many thanks to everyone – and there were many – who pointed out that what we called Main Street was in fact Church Street.

This was a deliberate ploy to find out how many readers were on their toes…

Another of our pictures was captioned “not a clue”, and it featured an unnamed pub in Mechanics Street in November 1951.

The Northern Echo:

The Fleece Inn in Mechanics Street, Shildon, in 1951

Lots of people kindly pointed out that there was a clue right beneath our nose for the same pub – The Fleece Inn – could be seen in another picture on the same page as it was by the footbridge over the Stockton & Darlington Railway line.

John Heslop in Durham discovered that in his 1894 street directory the landlord of the Fleece was William Bushey.

The pub, which was on the Mechanics Street corner with Station Street must have been cleared in the mid 1960s.

A further Shildon picture showed “slum garages” outside the newly-built Shildon Community College in 1966. Cllr Walter Nunn was campaigning for the slums to be demolished. A correspondent points out: “The “slum” garages are in fact still there and are now a thriving car repair business.”