Echo Memories


Echo Memories

  • This looks like George VI, in an overall just removed from its packet, on a visit to a NorthEast industrial facility. Does his helmet give a clue? Picture by Douglas Jefferson.
  • Newcastle United captain Frank Hudspeth is presented with the FA Cup at Wembley on April 26, 1924. They had beaten Aston Villa 2-0. Picture by Douglas Jefferson.
  • This is Douglas Jefferson, The Northern Echo's first chief photographer, on June 29, 1927, on the day of the total eclipse of the sun. It would seem that the Echo had hired a plane to take pictures of the thousands of people watching the eclipse.
  • Douglas Jefferson, The Northern Echo's first chief photographer, up St Cuthbert's Church tower, in Darlington, probably in the early Thirties. Behind him is the Peases mill chimney, which stood behind the library.
  • Jeff leaning on the front of an Echo delivery van outside a pub. The name on the door is Philip Gill - do you know the pub or the other faces? Picture by Douglas Jefferson.
  • There is no information about this picture, but Douglas was clearly trying a long explosure to capture a moonlit Darlington night beneath cooling towers. Picture by Douglas Jefferson.
  • 'Bathing belles of the Mack Sennett era' says the back of this 1913 print. Sennett was the founder of the Keystone studios famed for their slapstick comedy and silly cops. Picture by Douglas Jefferson.
  • 'Young hiker', dated April 23, 1935. Picture by Douglas Jefferson.
  • 'Middlesbrough circa 1941' it says on the back, but this must be August 1942 when architect William Peachey's impressive train shed at Middlesbrough suffered a direct hit in a German air raid. The shed was never rebuilt. Picture by Douglas Jefferson.
  • Rail crash at Darlington, June 27, 1928. The scene at Bank Top station where a Scarborough excursion train ploughed into the back of a goods train - its driver had passed a signal set at danger. Twenty-five died and 82 were injured, 45 of them seriously.
  • Sidecar racing on Saltburn beach. Picture by Douglas Jefferson.
  • 'Willis on the right scoring the fourth for Newcastle v Derby County. ' This means it was taken on March 13, 1911, at St James' Park - Jeff was presumably behind the Gallowgate goal looking at the East stand - in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
  • 'Sam Watson at the Durham Miners’ Gala (with Mr Attlee)’ Mr Watson (1898-1967) was the Boldon miner who became chairman of the Labour Party. Mr Attlee, of course, was the Prime Minister
  • High Force frozen in February 1929, Jeff’s most famous picture. When it was published, the Echo was inundated with requests for copies. It was the first time since 1869 that the waterfall had frozen. It happened again in 1964

Echo Memories

Echo Memories

Archive photos from The Northern Echo and The Northern Despatch, our now defunct evening sister paper.

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