AFTER yesterday's excitement over the Bond Minicar photographed in Darlington's High Row in about 1965, here is another fascination stolen from this month's exhibition of pictures in Darlington library: stock car racing at Aycliffe stadium.
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The stadium was built just after the end of the Second World War with an oval track made from ash from the coal burnt at Darlington power station. This made the track suitable for both greyhounds and speedway bikes.
But in the mid-1950s, Aycliffe became one of the first venues in the country to host the new sport of stock car racing, which involved cars that appeared to be mass production models, hence the word "stock".
Stock car racing came to be the main attraction at Aycliffe until the stadium closed in 1989. It was on Grindon Way and now there are industrial units on its site. Can anyone tell us anymore about the stadium or the vehicles that raced there?
The picture is part of February's display in the Centre for Local Studies in Darlington library.
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MEMORIES has the finest postbag in the country. Where else could you open an envelope with a turquoise King Charles III stamp on it and discover a scrumpled paper bag inside.
But what a paper bag!
It's a paper bag from Doggarts, the Harrods of south Durham."
I bought a hat for my wedding in 1977 from Doggarts, and when we moved into our house that year, it went into the attic in the bag in an old suitcase," says Christine Watson in Bishop Auckland.
"Two years ago, we were having a new roof, and I retrieved the suitcase. The hat went out but the suitcase went in the garage with the bag which I thought I would send to you."
How kind!
How ever many millions of Doggarts paper bags must have been given to customers from when the department store opened in Bishop Auckland in 1895 to when it, and its 17 branches across County Durham, closed in 1980? Billions? Perhaps trillions. And yet how many survive? This scrumpled paper bag is a piece of history to be treasured.
READ MORE: DOGGARTS: THE HARRODS OF SOUTH DURHAM
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