CHRIS Mills in Butterknowle has just bought this "rampant horse" at auction in Darlington.

It is rearing up over the word "Invicta", and a sticker above it says "Eddisons Whessoe Rd roller".

It comes from an Aveling and Porter road roller. Thomas Aveling and Richard Porter went into partnership building agricultural steam vehicles in the 1850s, and into business proper in the 1860s. Their vehicles were built at their Invicta Works in Rochester in Kent - the rearing horse being the emblem of Kent, still worn by county council and county cricket club.

Their heyday was the 1890s, and their road rollers went round the world - they produced more road rollers than all the other manufacturers put together.

At least one reached as far as Darlington - Chris has the emblem as proof. But what was Eddisons, as the sticker says? Were they based at Whessoe or in Whessoe Rd? Any help with this one would be most welcome.