A 1960s Daimler double decker bus once owned by Darlington Corporation Transport has found its way into the hands of the Aycliffe & District Bus Preservation Society, but it just has a blank advertising board on one side.
So Ian Wiggett from the society has kindly approached The Northern Echo, which he says is “synonymous” with Darlington, to see if we would like to go on the board – but the advert has to have some authenticity.
But photographic evidence of an Echo advert on the side of a 1960s double decker is hard to come by.
The clearest by far is a limited edition model of a Newcastle double decker which has “The Northern Echo” emblazoned down one side in Gothic lettering (above). This style of lettering was used on the Echo’s titlepiece from 1904 until Harold Evans replaced it in 1965 with the modern lettering that we still use today. We have, though, never seen a picture of a bus with this old-fashioned writing on the side of, and so we don't know how authentic the model is.
We’ve found a couple of other pictures, but the advert is not completely clear in either of them, so can you help? Do you have a picture of a bus with an Echo advert on it?
A Scott's Greys bus with a red Echo advert down the side, somewhere in Darlington (can you tell us where?). Pic courtesy of Keith Kitching
Driver Mike Fishwick with a single decker bus in 1998 with a most peculiar Echo advert down the side?
THIS means we should clear up the old car spotting picture that we still have outstanding. It appeared a fortnight ago and showed Middleton One Row in 1961. From the left, there’s a Ford Anglia 105e, a Ford Prefect e493a, a Ford Prefect 100e (or perhaps a Ford Anglia), an Austin A55 Cambridge, and then the fifth one was a bit too faraway, but could be an Austin 8, a Rover P4 or a Vauxhall 10. Among those who helped with the spotting were Mike McLaren and John Lambard.
Clive Madgin's drawing of a Durham "clay puffer". The drawing is not necessarily to scale
BACK in October, we were investigating clay puffers. They were made of clay scooped out of the ground which was turned into a box with holes in, baked in the oven until hard, and then filled with wet wood which, when ignited, produced clouds of smoke.
Why? Because you could.
And it kept your hands warm.
Memories 545 even had a drawing of a Durham clay puffer.
“In West Rainton in the early 1960s, we would play on the council house building sites and make ‘clay burners’ from exposed clay,” says Fred Hobson in Lanchester. “They were the same size and shape as the Durham one, but we would put in them what we called ‘tarry tout’ as fuel. This was creosote-soaked hemp that we found in the centre of old steel ropes on the pit heaps.
“We were never sophisticated enough to paint them as I remember we only used them to blow through and inhale the smoke – I guess we weren’t very bright.”
CARRYING ON THE pit heap theme, John Davison says: “Your photos of Trimdon Grange bring back memories (above in 1964), as I shovelled many a ton of coal off that pit heap. It was good stuff too, with a calorific value of around 12,000 BTUs – easily burnable in air assisted boilers.”
That’s a British Thermal Unit, which is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree, so 12,000BTUs is certainly warmer than your average clay puffer.
“My best was 36 tons one hot summer Saturday in 1956 and taking the three loads down to Bakelite at Aycliffe,” says John. “My Maudsley truck wasn’t a tipper, so not only did I have to shovel it on the truck, I had to shovel if off too!”
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