Crossings, cars and Crombies: Memories of Darlington's Tubwell Row

“No high viz jackets, minimum signage, gawping bystanders (some things don't change) and even the homely-looking brush lying on the ground behind them.

“Are you sure it wasn't a dare and just three lads playing noughts and crosses?”

It really is an amazing picture, taken in March 1964, when this was the A1, the main road from London to Edinburgh – and yet the workmen on their hands and knees in the middle of the road are protected only by a “keep right” sign. Even the policeman who is strolling about in the midst of the traffic doesn’t seem too concerned.

Then comes Jo’s more serious point: “I thought High Row referred to the top stretch of road and the lower one was West Row or Prebend Row or even Low Row but, according to the sign on the clocktower, it was all called West Row.”

Jo, who “only” came to Darlington in 1969, is right.

The High Row is really just the line of properties from Blackwellgate to Bondgate.

In the 14th Century, it was known as Borowerawe – presumably because it was the main row in the borough. After that it became known as Head Rawe, again because it was the main street, but since the 18th Century, it has been known as High Row – or perhaps even “the High Row”.

Opposite High Row at the Blackwellgate end is Low Row, which was also known as Low Flags. We feel that when the covered market complex was built in the mid 1860s, the shops on Low Row were said to be in West Row with East Row the side of the market which faced towards Bakehouse Hill.

The terrace which runs from Tubwell Row to Priestgate, and is now the Waterstones entrance to the Cornmill, is properly known as Prebend Row. In the 14th Century, St Cuthbert’s Church was run by four prebends – a priest with extra responsibilities – who either lived in the row or whose income came from the properties in the row.

To confuse matters further, in the 19th Century when Darlington was at its peak as an agricultural market town, all of Prebend Row and the top half of Tubwell Row were known as Sheepmarket.

“IT is amazing to think that all the cars waiting for the policeman's signal were made in Britain,” says John Lambard, referring to the same picture. “Not any more, but more than three million Qashqis built in Sunderland have made up for the loss.”

John was one of many who agreed that the two two-tone cars pushing past the three zebra crossing painters were both Vauxhalls.

“The car to the left of the traffic cop is a Vauxhall Velox and the one to the right is a Vauxhall Victor FA,” says Richard Stone. “The Velox was essentially a Cresta shorn of many adornments (and none the worse for that).

“The nip and tuck job on the Victor FA tidied up a bundle of space age eccentricity making the car more acceptable to the British market. Both models rusted at record breaking speed, the Victor in particular.”

Perhaps because of the rust issue, Mike Crawley reports that a Cresta new in 1960 cost £1,074 but by 1963 was only worth £245 – surely a Qashqai doesn’t lose four-fifths of its value in three years?

Mike believes the Victor is a Mark 2, introduced in 1959 when it cost £752.

“The driver of this car splashed out on the duotone paintwork, costing £14 extra and only available on the Super model. Also, I’m sure he would have ordered a heater at an extra cost of £15.”

The Co-op boxes being built in Tubwell Row on either side of the Raby in 1964

The Raby Inn (latterly known as the Pied Piper) surrounded by the extraordinary, pink Co-op boxes

THERE were screams of outrage from former Darlington Building Society (DBS) employees as we attributed Tubwell Row’s two stunningly Sixties constructions to their company.

The buildings in question were built on either side of the Raby Inn and look like giant, square loudspeakers. We’ve only seen black-and-white pictures of them and they looking deafeningly loud, drowning out the Victorian architecture of the Raby, but Susan Whyman, who grew up in the street, tells us that the large square bits were actually pink!

The elephant parade from Billy Smart's circus, which was appearing in South Park, turns into Church Row in the mid 1960s, with the Co-op on Tubwell Row in the background

The loudspeakers were constructed by the Darlington Co-operative Society (DCS) which stretched through from Priestgate to Tubwell Row. Presumably, the Co-op was unable to purchase the inn when it was expanding, and so it just built around it.

Therefore, the DCS buildings had nothing to do with DBS, which was founded in July 1856 when a group of men met in a back room in Mrs Johnson’s Eating House on the corner of Tubwell Row and Church Row. They wanted to assist the working man in getting a foot on the property ladder.

The Darlington Building Society headquarters built in 1901 in Church Row beside Crombies.

In 1901, the society built its headquarters on Church Row next to the eating house and there it remained until in 1965 it bought the properties between the Golden Cock and the Queen’s Head on Tubwell Row. It pulled those properties down and built a new head office, which opened in 1966, less than 100 yards away from the Co-op’s loudspeakers.

“It was quite a grand office with a boardroom on the top floor and a flat for a caretaker,” says David Blair, who had a successful interview in the office in 1969 at the start of his society career.

Alan Wood was another former employee who was shocked that the society could be linked with anything as garish as the Co-op building. He drew our attention to another picture in the spread which had been taken from the top of the clocktower.

A view from the top of Darlington clock tower in August 1978, with the real Darlington Building Society headquarters on the left

“On the left, you will see a large building with lift mechanism on the roof and a canopy near the bus stop,” he says. This was the building society headquarters until the late 1980s when the whole area was cleared for the Cornmill Centre and the society moved to Sentinel House in Yarm Road.

“The two building society windows on the far top left of the picture led to my office during my period as director and chief executive of the society from 1970 until I retired in 1995.”

Market Day in Tubwell Row - with a building on the corner with Church Row where Crombies came to stand. Picture courtesy of the Darlington Centre for Local Studies

Looking down Tubwell Row towards Crombies' corner, with a taller building now in place

SUSAN WHYMAN was interested in the pictures as she had grown up in Tubwell Row where her parents, Christina and George McCallum, had the famous Crombies café.

Indeed, Susan’s grandparents were the original Crombies, Alexander Jamieson and Katherine Crombie, who came to Darlington from Salisbury and founded the café in January 1934. They lived above it, on the corner with Church Row.

Christina Crombie outside the cafe in the late 1930s

“It was unusual for a family to live above their business in the centre of town in the 1960s when I was growing up,” says Susan, “but in the 1930s when Mum was a teenager many of the businesses in Tubwell Row had families living above. I remember her telling me that in the 1930s she would take a plated hot dinner to people working in the local businesses every day – an early Deliveroo?”

In 1935, George McCallum, an RAF flight sergeant on his way home to Kirkby Stephen, called in at Crombies, met Christina and they married in 1939. During the war, George was shot down over Germany and was held prisoner.

After the war, he returned to run the café with Christina.

“In the 1960s, Crombies served very traditional food: steak and kidney pie, roast beef, baked jam roll and custard were all favourites,” says Susan.

“Everyone ate their main meal at lunchtime then, and in the afternoons we served mainly tea and cakes, although some people did come in for High Tea – when I was a teenager I worked at Crombies in the afternoons cooking omelettes and steaks, in between doing A level homework.

“As well as a restaurant, Crombies was a hotel.

“Most of our customers were commercial travellers, who would visit regularly. They liked the homely feel – we only had one TV in the early 1960s and our family would sit with the guests to watch TV in the evenings. Mum would bring everyone cocoa and biscuits before bed!

“Occasionally the hotel would be overbooked, and Mum would ask a couple of the commercial travellers to share a twin room – I can't imagine that happening today!”

George died in 1978, but Christina – known as “Mrs Mac” ¬– continued to run Crombies with her daughter and son-in-law, Maureen and Frederick Stehr, until she was 80.

Crombies really is a Darlington institution, a favourite meeting place for townspeople, and close enough to the theatre to be touched by stardust: Arthur Lowe, Tom Baker and Jimmy Cricket have all graced Crombies, and the table around which Page 3 model Linda Lusardi and actor Sam Kane had their first date while appearing in panto in 1987 has been something of a local landmark.

Linda Lusardi and Sam Kane who had their first date in Crombies in Tubwell Row

Mrs Mac died in 2007, and when Maureen and Frederick retired about ten years ago, the business passed into new hands – but still the name of Crombies is to be found on Tubwell Row.

Looking down Tubwell Row, with Crombies centre stage, in 1986