AS ever, Memories has blundered into a little local difficulty. Is Woodside part of Witton Park or a separate community; is Lark’s Hill in Woodside, and where does California fit into the conundrum?

Memories 123 included a snowy picture November 1969 which we said showed Witton Park, just to the west of Bishop Auckland.

“My father, Stanley Swainston, says the photograph was taken from Raby Corner, Woodside, looking up to Woodside,”

reports Marion Taylor. “To get into Main Street, Witton Park, you turn left at Raby Corner.

“My father and his family lived in the farm at the top right of the photograph from 1936 until May 1949. It is called Woodland House Farm, Woodside, Witton Park.”

Raby Corner got its name from the Raby Arms – the pub, now a private house, still stands on the corner.

The photographer was looking from Raby Corner along a street called Lark’s Hill – one of the houses near the top of the hill has a carved lintel with the date 1855. Lark’s Hill is in Woodside, although in the dip in the middle of the street, the council has planted a sign saying “Witton Park”.

At the top of Lark’s Hill is another little conglomeration of houses called California. Here, on August 15, 1940, a German plane dropped some bombs, killing farmhand Levi Wharton, 24, and William Harrison, ten.

Thirteen cows and two horses were also killed, and shrapnel struck a passing bus, injuring two passengers.

Because this is a geographically-challenging part of the world, almost directly across the Wear from California is Toronto.

Toronto gets its name because the landowner, Henry Stobart, was in Canada in 1859 when he heard coal had been discovered on his land.

While that explains the Canadian connection, we don’t know the American link – do you?

Marion then complicates things even further. “If the photographer had turned round at Raby Corner, he would have been looking up to the Baltic,” she says.

The Northern Echo: The lintel in Lark’s Hill, Woodside
The lintel in Lark’s Hill, Woodside