FROM Windermere in the Lake District comes a plea from Bruce Dodsworth.

“As children brought up in West Auckland, my brother Arnold and myself were reminiscing and remembered my mother using a “laven tin” which was used for transferring hot water from a coal fired boiler to the zinc bath for the weekly Friday bath. Our question is why was it called a “laven tin”?

The “laven tin” does seem to have been a genuine south Durham term for a pan with handles which transferred the water from the range to the bath. Can anyone explain it?

The letter also gives us an excuse to re-use one of our favourite photographs from The Northern Echo library which was taken in January 1974 in Gurney Valley. When we last used it in 2013, we tracked down the youngsters in the bath, but this time we’ll draw a discreet towel over their names.