IT was not quite the Angel of the North. Nor was it the White Horse of Kilburn. But whenever travellers saw Richardson’s Thermometer, they knew they’d reached Darlington.

But 50 years ago this month, the thermometer became stuck on a sweltering 60 degrees as the factory around it burned to the ground.

“It happened during the evening of July 14, 1960,” says Eileen Copeland, who celebrated her 21st birthday the following day. “My husband and I were living in Walton Street which was usually a very quiet street. We wondered what the commotion was outside at around 8.30pm, and we were amazed to find the street thronging with crowds of people who were staring beyond us to the blaze that was destroying the premises.”

Richardson’s was one of Darlington’s greatest firms which specialised in building glasshouses.

Its founder, William Richardson who was born in Langbaurgh Hall, Great Ayton, in 1836, started dabbling in glasshouses when he was just 15 and the glass concept was all the rage because of the Crystal Palace that Prince Albert had built in London for the Great Exhibition.

In 1874, Richardson set up his own factory – the North of England Horticultural Works – beside the East Coast Main Line off Neasham Road. Right from the beginning, the factory was eye-catching for train passengers as it had a “spiremounted glass dome”.

But it became a landmark in 1952, when an 18ft semi-circular thermometer was erected to promote the company’s hothouses and heating systems.

Eight years later, the temperature rose phenomenally when the fire broke out.

“The flames lit the skyline for nearly two hours and could be seen for many miles around,” said The Northern Echo, which put the cost of the blaze at £20,000.

By the time its sister paper, the Evening Despatch, hit the news stands, the cost of the blaze had risen to £30,000. The Despatch said: “The famous thermometer, which stands on the balcony between the paint and joinery shops and is clearly visible from the railway line, stuck at 60 degrees during the fire.”

Although the workshops around it were gutted, the thermometer survived. It was re-shaped as a triangle, but still it stood by the railside, telling the temperature.

When Richardson’s went into receivership in 1980, the conservatories division of the company – called Amdega since 1963 because of its “ambition, determination and gain” – moved to Faverdale, where it has become a world leader.

The thermometer, though, was left all on its own on wasteland. In 1988, apprentices at nearby Cleveland Bridge gave it a radical overhaul and turned it into a modernistic pyramid. Soon, though, it was a target for vandals, and the whole lot was removed in 1998.

Now Matalan and other retail outlets occupy the site of Darlington’s once distinctive thermometer.