When the first mayor's ball was held in the "drab town" of Darlington

“Being the first event of the kind that has taken place in the town, the ball was not unnaturally looked forward to by a large section of the community with considerable interest,” said the Darlington & Stockton Times. “There were those, too, who hazarded a doubt as to the success of a ball in the “drab town”.”

The daring mayor who fought against the drabness was Richard Luck (above) who had broken through the early Quaker dominance to become the town’s sixth mayor in 1873. He ran a draper’s shop on High Row which later became Dresser’s, and, on February 14, 1873, he threw a “grand ball” in Central Hall.

Richard Luck's store on High Row in 1966

The Northern Echo the following morning said the ball was a success and printed the names of nearly 200 ladies and gentlemen who attended. It said: “The hall was tastefully adorned for the occasion, and the dancing was kept up with spirit till an early hour this morning.”

The D&S Times went into greater detail. “The somewhat dull and sombre building was appropriately decorated for the occasion,” it said. “Flags, bannerets and festoons were disposed in the most artistic manner.”

A huge motto, “long live the Prince of Wales”, was painted on a wall inside the hall because, following a brush with death, the formerly philandering heir to the throne was enjoying a change of public fortunes.

New fangled gas jets in the centre of the hall sent up flames in the shape of the Prince of Wales’ feather. “The effect was exceedingly pleasing,” said the D&S. “It might even be called brilliant.”

Central Hall, Darlington, in 1962

The guests stopped dancing at midnight for supper and then tripped the light fantastic toe into the wee small hours.

The D&S concluded: “The ball as a whole was remarkably animated and successful, and while many wondered that it should have been the first of its kind in Darlington, there were few who did not breathe the hope that the encouragement vouchsafed to, and the genial spirit shown by, the mayor, might stimulate his successors to go and do likewise…”

And, of course, over the decades, the mayor’s successors have indeed done likewise. The mayor’s annual ball raises money for charity and, still held in Central Hall, is one of the highlights of the social calendar of the “drab town”.

Mayor Anne-Marie Curry with the finalists from Darlington College in the competition to design a poster for her African-themed charity ball

This year, 150 years after the first ball, mayor Anne-Marie Curry, who spent the first nine years of her life in Uganda battling poisonous snakes and dodging snipers’ bullets, is holding a Celebrating Africa ball on April 21 to raise money for the Darlington Association on Disability and Family Help.

High Row in 1960 with Lucks, later Dressers, on the right

READ MORE: HAVE YOU GOT ANY ITEMS OF CRESTED CHINA?

ONE DARLINGTON MAN'S BELLICOSE COLLECTION OF CRESTED CHINA

“I HAVE this tiny crested Darlington cup and saucer,” says Lorraine Morrison, taking us back to the wonderful world of crested china that was so popular at the start of the 20th Century. “It is 3cm high and the saucer is 7.5cm diameter.”

Meanwhile, Marian Lewis in Hutton Magna has a delicate china swan bearing the coat-of-arms of the City of York on its back and underneath it says: “A Gilbertson, Lendal Bridge Cafe, York”.

That’s one of the joys of these cheap souvenirs: not only do they take you to the place someone once visited but occasionally to the very place where the souvenir was bought.

This is one of the first pieces we’ve seen from Yorkshire. We’ve had loads from Durham – even Willington, Trimdon and Wheatley Hill, which are not known for their tourist industry – but all we’ve seen from the dales is a First World War tank with the crest of Aysgarth Falls on it. Unless you know better…