THE gasps of dismay were genuine when, on Thursday morning last week, news reached this office that Dressers was to close its Darlington and Northallerton shops.

The Darlingtonians could not imagine life without Dressers, where they'd been bought their first geometry sets and whose tiny black and gold stickers had appeared on the inside back cover of school prizes.

Some went back to the 50s and 60s when a school joke was that Books sold dresses on the Low Flags and Dressers sold books on the High Row. Dressers, then, was nearer the Bondgate end of High Row, with their present premises occupied by another old Darlington family business, Lucks.

Lucks was the traditional drapers and haberdashers, even down to money whizzing back and forth to a central office. Many times since Lucks closed have Darlington women said to each other of some hard-to-find item: "Well, you'd have got that at Lucks." Now, with the town centre manager eagerly anticipating the arrival of a national name the town "has been trying to attract for some time" the coming years may well ring to the phrase: "Well, you'd have got that at Dressers." They'll say it in Northallerton, too.

Silly words

Ah-ha. Now we have it. According to a correspondent on this page, Coun Tony Pelton not was the author of the words in the Clarion News freesheet which initiated a complaint to Richmondshire District Council standards committee.

For those not up to speed with a story recently running in our Yorkshire edition, the aforementioned words were comments on the comeliness of certain female members of staff at the district council.

The words may not have been sexist, but certainly would have embarrassed the staff identified.

Of course, as editor Coun Pelton is responsible for publishing them and therefore has to face the music. But perhaps the actual author, who writes under the pseudonym Patrick Brompton, should now be prepared to reveal himself.

The authorship of the occasionally witty but mostly ridiculous column is well-known in Richmondshire political circles. He is Coun Pelton's most prominent supporter and is also renowned for his vociferous attacks on certain aspects of the district council's operation and a number of senior officers.

Perhaps he should be gracious enough to offer the apology demanded by the committee and bring this silly affair to a close.

PS. - If anyone was ever in doubt about the identity of Spectator, it's the editor