IN the early 1960s, the man from the Co-op would tour from door to door with his preprinted shopping list, noting down what each housewife wanted.

He’d then send the order back to the shop for despatch.

Rita Blakey from Sedgefield has sent in a sheaf of orders completed by the Tudhoe and Spennymoor Co-operative Society from its premises in Beaumont Terrace.

They date from 1962, and it seems that the people of Spennymoor wanted far more than just the Co-op’s bog standard, pre-printed suggestions, and so the salesman scrawled the individual items on top.

So Mrs Thirkell – membership number 8,290 – order 12 Blue Riband (2s 6d), Lifebuoy soap (1s 4d), a tin of Irish stew (1s 11½d), 2 boxes of rusks (3s)1lb of dried peas (1s 2d) and a tin of mushroom soup (1s).

She seems to have lived in Kiln Crescent, a street where the salesman collected several orders on the same January day. This is presumably the Kiln Crescent in Bishop Middleham – can you shed any light on this order? DEATH is fascinating, particularly when it is laid out coldly in black and white on a bill.

This is the cost of the funeral of Frederick Patton, a former miner, who died in August 1939 in Howden-le-Wear.

He was laid to rest by Joseph Gibson, a carpenter who doubled as the village undertaker.

Mr Gibson founded his business in 1861 and as it is still run by his grandson, Mark, it is the oldest established business in Howden-le- Wear. By chance, Frederick’s grandson, Allan Potts, served his woodworking apprenticeship at Gibson’s in the 1950s and so is in a position to explain the entry on the invoice for a “three paneled elm coffin”.

“It had three panels on each side,” he says. “One above the shoulder and two below. Elm would have been used, as oak was more expensive.”

The total cost of the funeral was £11 15s which included “two inserts Echo 8s” – presumably Frederick’s death notice was published twice in The Northern Echo for a very reasonable sum. THE next village down the dale, Witton-le- Wear, also had its own undertaker, George Ramshaw. Four years later, he charged nearly £14 more for conducting the funeral of Emma Husband, of West End Farm.

The bill, sent in by Emma’s grand-daughter Elaine Allan, shows that the basic cost is broadly the same as in Howden-le-Wear – her family also opted for an elm coffin with silver mountings.

However, there are a couple of exceptional items.

An extra six shillings has been charged for the verger “for loss of work”, which seems a little odd.

The bulk of the difference, though, is made up of the “hearse and three coaches to Croft-on-Tees”, a journey of nearly 20 miles. Emma had asked to be buried alongside her son, Cliff, who had died there at the age of 16.