If there's a tastier lunch on offer anywhere than the three courses served at the Day Club in Woodland Village Hall for £2, many a gourmet would love to hear of it.

The scrumptious fare cooked by Tracey Turnbull - tomato and veg soup, fishcakes with peas and carrots, apple crumble and custard - was being enjoyed by 35 pensioners, amid a buzz of merry chatter, when I called on Monday.

Gladys Marr, bright as new shilling at 94, was lavish in her praise of the meal between recalling how she met her late husband, George, at a boisterous Assembly Rooms hop at Middleton in the 1920s.

Cyril and Margaret Wallace, both lively at 86, chuckled as they spoke of their hard-working early life and of the caring way they are now treated by club support worker Carol Holland and her volunteers Dora Robinson, Bet Campbell, Pat Faulke, Enid Kidd, Brenda Coates, Sue Smith, Liz Toes, Joyce Girling and Joan Simpson.

Vernon Linsley and his pal Raymond Walton said the lunch was always excellent but that the good company and crack was just as important. Vernon's wife, Jean, recalled old canivals and pantomimes before murmuring: "It's wonderful to see old friends for an hour or two and chat about what's been going on."

The club, launched just over a year ago, is the newest of nine which provides a marvellous service for the dale. With regular outings and entertainment as well as superb food, it's likely that some younger local residents are longing for their bus-pass age to arrive so they can qualify as members and join the fun.

When Cockfield Male Voice Choir faded away, to the regret of its many friends, it looked as if retired cabinet maker Colin Priestley would have to give his splendid tenor voice a few more nights off. He continued turning out with the Durham Police Choir but badly missed his weekly sessions with the popular village songsters.

However, he is now back in full flow again as he has joined Stanley Forum Gospel Choir.

He makes an arduous 56- mile round trip to join the line-up at Annfield Plain, at an age when most folk prefer to doze in an armchair.

"I don't mind all the travelling because it's a brilliant set-up there and I enjoy every minute," said the veteran whose smooth tones have charmed audiences around the dale for quite a few decades.

Following the closure of Eggleston post office and shop, I've enjoyed re-reading the late David Nicholson's slim booklet about the village's history. It records that a bit over a century ago there were no fewer than six local shoemakers - Henry and William Coates, John and Michael Nodding, James and John Raine. And there were plenty of other traders.

The Coates family had a grocery shop in Church Bank and next to it was a drapery shop run by the Coates sisters, Mary and Martha. John Wall had a butcher's shop as well as running the Three Tuns Inn. Richard Bell was a flagstone merchant as well as being mine host at the Moorcock Inn. John Redfern had a grocery shop at what later became the post office. Postal services then were run by Robert Walker, in Church Bank.

Joseph Robinson also had a grocery and butcher's shop, while Joshua Bell was a shopkeeper too.

The village also had another part-time butcher and a soda water maker.

So there was quite a business community, just as there was in other dale villages, which like Eggleston, are sadly left without any shops.

* I'll be glad to see anyone who calls with snippets of news at The Northern Echo office at 36 Horsemarket, Barnard Castle, on Mondays and Tuesdays, telephone (01833) 638628.