THE COATES family of Willington have been connected with The Northern Echo throughout its 150 year history.

John Coates is listed in the paper’s first edition, published on January 1, 1870, as one of the 62 newsagents who had been lined up to sell the paper.

The business in Willington High Street passed down through the generations, selling 850 Echos a morning in the 1960s, and in 1970, John’s great-grandson, David, was presented with a set of silver spoons by the paper to commemorate its 100th anniversary.

The family business was just one of three to have been continuously selling the paper throughout its life.

The Echo celebrated its centenary with a gala evening at Billingham Forum, and David was presented with the spoons by the Honourable Angela Campbell-Preston, the chairman of the Echo’s parent company, Westminster Press.

“It was a very formal evening, and we were called up on stage for the presentation,” he says. “We were very proud to receive them.”

John Coates, who hailed from Bridlington, opened the shop at 70, High Street, in 1863. He was a printer and a postmaster, and he was renowned for having one of the first boneshaker bicycles – with giant wheels but propelled by his feet – in Willington.

His son, Herbert, started in the business aged eight. In 1888, aged 13, he acquired Willington’s first “safety bicycle” – a normal-sized pedal cycle that was much safer for early cyclists than being up a height on a penny-farthing. In 1903, he got Willington’s first steam car, a French-made Gardner-Serpollet with a top speed of 40mph, before in 1910 moving onto a Sims eight horsepower petrol car.

These vehicles assisted him in developing the photography and postcard side of the business – postcards, with local scenes, were the equivalent of a tweet or Facebook post in those days – while still selling the Echo.

He passed the business, by now located at 16, High Street, to his son, Ronald, who moved it to the other side of the street. When Ronald died in 1954, his wife, Doris, took on the business, assisted by David.

“I started in the shop in 1958 when I was 18,” he says. “I used to get up at half past five every morning, and my first job was pulling in six or seven or eight parcels of Echos – they were packed in hundreds.”

An army of paperboys distributed the papers through letterboxes across the town. “There’ve been hundreds of paperboys over the years – they still stop me in the street, and I get Christmas cards from them,” says David.

After nearly 40 years of starting work at the crack of dawn, David retired in 1996. The business still goes, now trading as convenience store and post office, and still selling The Northern Echo – David still gets his copy from there every morning, ensuring that the family’s 150-year connection is unbroken.

BLOB Don’t miss our special 150th anniversary souvenir supplement in tomorrow’s paper. We’d love to hear from you if you have a long-standing family connection to the paper – please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk if you have one