IN the first week of September 1914, a month after the start of the First World War, the invading German army came within 25 miles of the French capital of Paris.

The Germans were so close that the civilians could hear – even feel – the pounding of their guns. Every taxi in the city was commandeered to carry soldiers to the front line; every train out of the city was full of people fleeing for safety.

La Belle Epoque – the good old days – were definitely over.

Among those on the move were wealthy English citizens. As soon as they heard the guns, they loaded all of their valuables from their Parisian townhouses into their private railway carriages, and headed for the Channel in the hope of crossing to safety.

The valuables included a cask of Barnet et Fils cognac that was too large for one evacuee’s London cellar, and so he sold it.

The purchaser was, of course, T Pease & Son, the Darlington wine and spirit wholesaler with a penchant for patriating large consignments of French brandy. Last week we told how, in the 1870s, Edward Pease – the head of the firm, and an Anglican, not a Quaker – imported a 1,000 gallon cask into Stockton so that it could escape the ravages of the Franco-Prussian War.

Likewise, in 1914, his son, Frank, rescued a cask from the ravages of the First World War.

He kept the cask in the cellars beneath the Covered Market, where Peases had stored their spirits since the market was built in 1864.

The company seems not to have done anything with the war cask until the early 1970s, when it bottled the brandy and, with this incredible story attached, put it on the market.

This coincided with Geoffrey Dobson, of Redworth, celebrating the sale of his family Cornforth quarrying company to Tarmac.

“Myself and two other directors bought some champagne from Peases and they said they had one last case of a special cognac,” says Geoffrey. “So we bought it between us.”

It was about £150 – quite expensive for 1973.

“I got two bottles, and with some friends about two years ago, we opened one of the bottles. I noticed that while it appeared light in the bottle, it darkened when exposed to the air, but it was exceptionally smooth – a lovely old cognac.”

It could be very old because it probably had been in the cask for a couple of decades before Peases acquired it in 1914.

Now only one bottle from that last case from the wartime cask remains. To brandy connoisseurs, with the story attached, it is probably very desirable.

“People say I should put it in Sothebys,” says Geoffrey, “but at the end of the day, I would rather drink it.”

AS a quick recap, Peases was formed in 1808 by a black sheep cousin of the railway Quaker family. They became well known for brandies and for whiskies – their BOS, “Blended Old Scotch”, was internationally renowned in the days of empire.

In 1899, Peases built a shop opposite the market on Bakehouse Hill, which they closed in 1981. Even while we’ve been researching this article, history has been moving on: Foffano’s restaurant which had occupied Peases was trading in early August but this week it has been gutted and “De’ Braai of Darlington” has set up a Facebook page saying it will be opening its “peri delicious” chicken restaurant there by the end of September.

There are still connections with Peases the wine merchants, though. As well as Geoffrey’s bottle, the Darlington Centre for Local Studies has an envelope of Peases labels which they have kindly looked out for us.