THIS picture was taken by Richard Gaunt who remembers it was from the Rise Carr area of Darlington, and the little girl was far more interested in his camera than in the coal man in the distance.

Northern Echo readers have been in touch to shed light on the identity of the coalman and the odd apparatus.

"The photograph shows the back lane of William Street looking towards Whessoe Road,” says Stuart McLean. "On the left is the North Road Railway Works.

"A 1954 plan of the works refers to the strange-shaped piece of apparatus on the left as a cyclone. It will be part of the dust extraction system for the joiners’ shop which was just behind the wall. The joiners’ shop is still standing on Whessoe Road as part of Rise Carr Car Car Sales."

Several other people mentioned that the rocket-like apparatus was a sawdust extractor.

David Reed switched attention to the coalman whose cart is in the distance.

"I’m sure he was known as ‘Alfie Nick’, real name Nicholson, and he lived in Westmoreland Street,” he says. “I remember him well as a young lad recently come to live in Darlington. He would trudge the streets of the Rise Carr area selling coal, which was the most common source of fuel."