A dreadful tragedy has been recalled following a report in The Northern Echo about a display featuring Teesdale's postmen in decades gone by.

Harold Howe, who lives in Barnard Castle, contacted me after reading it to relate how his father, Fred Howe, was killed.

He was a popular postman who cycled all over Marwood and Langleydale delivering letters and parcels when the sorting office was on The Bank. But while pedalling on his round on a Saturday in May, 1928, when he was 37, he was fatally injured in a collision with a car near Kinninvie.

There was great sorrow among his customers and colleagues, and many attended the funeral.

His wife, Mary, known as Molly, was left living in Cleasby's Yard with Harold, who was aged four. At the time, she was also expecting her second child, Arthur, who was born some months later.

"She must have had a struggle to make ends meet," said Harold, who has always been known as Harley, after an uncle of that name.

"She was given eight shillings a week widow's pension and compensation of £5 a month. It would be extremely difficult to bring up two boys on that."

Mrs Howe married again some years later, becoming Mrs Wilfred Waine. Harley's own marriage has been long and happy, as he and his wife Winifred celebrated their diamond wedding last June.

More details have emerged about the Barnard Castle railway station sign which, as recorded here last week, was sold for £5,200 at George Kidner's auction in Lymington. Hampshire.

Brian Lee, a consultant and valuer for the firm, told me that one collector travelled from the US to try to buy the relic but was outbid. The original estimate had been put at £2,000 to £2,500.

Though the sign seemed to have a maroon background in a photograph, it was in fact tangerine, a colour used only on railways in the North-East.

This may have added to its value, said Mr Lee, as some enthusiasts probably wanted to add it to differently-coloured signs in their collections.

It was also in excellent condition, possibly because it had been under a canopy in the station, away from rain and sunlight. And the fact that the station closed a long time ago, in the 1960s, also made it more valuable. A sign from Newton Abbott was sold for only £1,600 the same day.

Mr Lee thought the buyer and seller of the Barnard Castle sign both lived in the south. It is not known who got it when it was first removed, but anyone else who has a relic of this kind will be pleased to know that it could well be fairly valuable.

Harry Dick will be hugely missed by his disabled workforce, as well as his many admiring customers after stepping down this week as boss of the Teesdale garden craft workshop at Stainton Grove.

No matter what problem cropped up, or how difficult any order proved to be, he was always gentle, amiable, polite, helpful and modest. He was the perfect person for the task, as he guided his team to turn out excellent timber products after they started with no experience.

He confessed that he was no expert at first, and had to learn like the others as he went along.

Mr Dick had a fairly high-powered job in industry before he retired at an early age and became a helper in a Leonard Cheshire home for handicapped people. He later cared for other disabled folk in Teesdale before taking on the craft project, saving it from closure and making it a success.

Many will wish him a long and happy second retirement at the Romaldkirk home he shares with his wife, Elizabeth, a Marie Curie nurse who embodies many of his caring qualities. Surely there can't be many in the Dale more deserving of a national honour than Harry?

There used to be a notion that any festive decorations left in place after Twelfth Night would bring bad luck, but let's hope this doesn't apply in Teesdale. In the middle of this week, there were still no fewer than 30 Christmas trees on show outside businesses in Barnard Castle.

Fortunately, the larger trees had been removed, but Christmas displays were also still evident in Darlington after the January 6 deadline.

Perhaps it's stretching the cheerful season a little further, in the way that Easter eggs are usually on offer in many shops before December is out.

I'll be glad to see anyone who calls with snippets of news at The Northern Echo office at 36 Horsemarket, Barnard Castle, on Mondays and Tuesdays, telephone (01833) 638628.