COUNTY DURHAM historian Tom Hutchinson is compiling material for his latest book and wonders if you can help. It is to be about Page Bank.

Page Bank?

Page Bank is a lost mining community. Once it consisted of half-a-dozen rows of terraced houses on a minor road between Spennymoor and Brancepeth, built between the pit – sunk in the 1850s – and the chapel, the school, the institute and the river. There was a strong community spirit within these tight terraces which helped the people fight after the pit closure in 1931 and after the county council inflicted Category D status on them in 1951, a categorisation which effectively cut off investment and left the place to die.

However, what really did for Page Bank was the Wear. On November 5, 1967, it rose by 20ft flooding the village. Even for the residents used to the vagaries of the river, this was bad. They were evacuated and most never returned.

"A stranger visiting the site today would find no evidence of the thriving community which had existed up to 50 years ago," says Tom.

The book is being sponsored by Etherington's newsagents in Bishop Auckland and Sheldon's newsagents in Willington, and Tom would love to hear from anyone who has any pictures or anecdotes about Page Bank. Either email him at hutchinsontom542@gmail.com or call on 0191-410-4383.

Here are a few of the pictures he has collected, plus some from The Northern Echo's photo-archive.

FRONT COVER: The illustration on the front of today's Memories comes from the Beamish Museum collection and shows deputies and officials from the Page Bank (or South Brancepeth) colliery which caused the foundation of the village. The brilliant picture was taken in the 1880s