THE DARLINGTON book fair returns next Saturday after a two year break due to the pandemic, and there will be thousands of collectable books to leaf through at the sixth form college.
All topics and types of books will be covered, although Memories is most interested in the local ones, which range from the much sought-after sketchbooks of Darlington’s greatest artist to a builder’s brochure for some of the most desirable addresses in town.
Fothergill's signature in the front of one of the limited edition sketchbooks that are for sale at Darlington Book Fair
George Algernon Fothergill came to Darlington as a reluctant doctor in 1898 but quickly gained entry to the country sports set. He gave up the doctoring and became a full time artist, specialising in horses and hunting scenes. He also captured lively characters, local views and quirky details – he loved pub signs, for instance.
He surrounded his sketches with pen portraits and historical details, written in his flamboyant inkpen, and published them as limited edition sketchbooks.
His first, An Old Raby Hunt Album, was sponsored by the Marquis of Zetland at Aske Hall, near Richmond, in 1899.
But the last, Notes from the Diary of a Doctor, Sketch Artist and Sportsman, in 1908, was published by William Dresser of High Row who refused to release the full print run until he had cleared his debts. This ultimately led to him being declared bankrupt, which caused him and his family to leave town.
They settled in East Grinstead in Kent (perhaps it was just coincidence that it was close to the Lingfield Park racecourse) and lived contentedly until July 9, 1943, when his wife and two Darlington-born daughters were among the 108 to be killed by a German plane which machine-gunned civilians in the town centre. Fothergill, who distinctively signed himself GAF, died soon after.
His sketchbooks are real works of art and several of them will be at the fair.
GAF's view of the entrance to Haughton-le-Skerne
At the other end of the scale is a pre-war brochure produced by Darlington builders W Sanders Hutton for their “Blackwell Road Estate”. Where?
“If you take one of the Corporation trackless trams from the Market Place to Salutation Corner, you are at the entrance to the estate and exactly one mile from the centre of Darlington,” says the brochure.
Salutation Corner at the entrance to the Blackwell Road Estate. Elm Ridge garden centre is today on the right hand side of the picture and on the left there is still a petrol filling station - although very different to this one in the builders' brochure
We would now know the estate as Carmel Road South, stretching from the Elm Ridge garden centre down to the Blackwell corner shop, and including all the smart west end addresses on Ravensdale Road, Linwood Grove, Carmel Grove, Ayton Drive and Blackwell Scar.
In the mid-1930s, new-built bungalows started at £600, three bedroomed houses were priced from £700 to £850, and a four-bedroomed house was £900 or more.
We think this is the corner of Coniscliffe Road and Hartford Road being constructed in the mid-1930s
“Most of us have a dream tucked away in our minds, a house well and strongly built in a noble setting, where from our own doorstep we can drink in the inspiration of the majesty of the high hills and graceful valleys,” says the brochure. “We feel we are asking rather a lot. Dreams do come true, sometimes more abundantly than in the fantasy of our mind, and so it has happened at Darlington, where at Hutton’s Blackwell Road Estate, we find the answer to our quest for the ideal home.”
A newly built house on the Blackwell Road Estate in the mid-1930s. This is opposite Elm Ridge Methodist Church
At the same time as these suburban dreams were coming true, on countryside bordering the estate, three 1930s mansions were being going up, one of which would become the home of dragon Duncan Bannatyne. As Memories 569 told, that home, The Lindens, is on the market for just under £2m.
The brochure gives just as fascinating an insight into life in the time it was produced as the work of GAF. Art, literature and history will be for sale at the book fair at the Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Vane Terrace from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, May 7.
Inside one of the new houses going up on the Blackwell Road Estate
Hutton's builders creating Hartford Road, one of the West End roads on the Blackwell Road Estate
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