‘THIS is a picture of Aunt Peggy,” reads a child’s pencil handwriting on the back of the photograph.

“She perished on the RMS Titanic on the 15th of April 1912.

“May the angels keep her and God protect her from the perils of the Deep.”

The picture was found beneath the dining-room floorboards of a house in Willow Road, in Darlington’s Denes area, along with four odd earrings, some bracelets and a broken necklace – items of costume jewellery rather than antiquity.

Also, there were two shopping items. One is a receipt for a £15-5-0 His Master’s Voice wireless, bought from a shop in Stockton in 1945.

The other is a type-written letter from a Newcastle catering company addressed to Mrs Hoggart, of Waverley Street, Stockton.

“We shall be glad to reserve accommodation for your party of 30 for High Tea on Saturday, January 28, 1950, price 3/6d per head, at our Collingwood Street branch at 5pm,” it says. What are we to make of it all? No one knows.

We can’t find Aunt Peggy in the list of 1,502 passengers who drowned that day. Can anyone offer any clues?

MANY thanks to everyone who has sent in old receipts: perhaps we’ll do a special edition of them next week. In the meantime, here’s a ticket for a 1955 black tie Police Ball held in the Welfare Hall, Thornley. Tom Walker, of Wheatley Hill, has kept it, and notes that the whist drive, the supper, the dancing to Kip Heron and His Orchestra plus late transport home to the surrounding villages was all in for 10s 6d.

ON Thursday, calligrapher Susan Moor is the autumn speaker at the Friends of St Cuthbert’s Church, in Darlington. She teaches and exhibits across the region, and specialises in producing medieval manuscript facsimiles for museums and TV. The talk is free to members, with a charge of £5, to include a drink, for visitors.

Call 01325-353367 for details.