LINGFORD'S, as Echo Memories has observed over many a week, was very much a family company. It made baking powder in Bishop Auckland, and was started by Joseph Lingford in 1861 and closed by his great-grandson, Kenneth, in 1973.

The company prided itself on its employee-friendly policies. Many of these were introduced by Ernest Connacher, general manager from the early 1930s to early 1950s. His daughter, Joan, now lives in Crook.

These policies included holidays with pay, paid sick leave and the running of a convalescent home in Weardale. Then there was the annual staff outing.

Brenda Ruddock, of Bishop Auckland, has sent in this picture of the 1947 trip to Scarborough. Her parents, William and Doris, went on it because William was Lingford's sales and advertising manager from 1934 to 1959.

We must surely be reaching the end of Lingford's-related material - there cannot be a person in south Durham who has something to tell but has not yet been touch.

But before we leave the subject, there are two tantalising pieces of tittle-tattle that we have yet to prove are true.

First, Kenneth Lingford, like all of his family, was a devout Quaker.

Quakers are, of course, pacifists. During the Second World War he was unable to fight, but it is said that he became a test pilot - which was practically as dangerous as being on the frontline. Is this true?

Second, Herbert Lingford, Kenneth's father, is said to have met an unusual death in woods near Barnard Castle in the early 1950s. Is this true? All information will be treated in confidence.

Write to: Echo Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF, call (01325) 505062, or e-mail chris.lloy