“IT was a complete surprise,” says Arnold Rycroft. “It hit me like a tank.”

Memories 617 included a picture taken in August 1961 of Bainbridge Barker, the department store on the corner of Skinnergate and Blackwellgate in Darlington. Outside the store was a black Morris Minor, NHN 74, with a two-paned windscreen – and with Arnold at the wheel and his wife, Doreen, beside him.

READ MORE: THE STORY OF DARLINGTON'S PREMIER DEPARTMENT STORE, BAINBRIDGE BARKER

“We honeymooned in that car – I thought the world of it!”

The Northern Echo: Bainbridge Barkers on the corner of Skinnergate and Blackwellgate in August 1961 when the Great North Road, the main road between Edinburgh and London, ran past its door. Our old car spotters may care to identify the four vehicles on the corner: NHN 74

The car (above left) belonged to Doreen’s father, Frank Lupton, who, when the photo was taken, had recently retired as manager of Sheffield’s fish, game and poultry shop in Skinnergate.

Arnold is confident he is driving because his Merchant Navy logbook shows that he finished his contract serving on the Ivernia, sailing through the Panama Canal, on April 21, 1961, and didn’t begin his next contract, on Woodlark sailing to Hamburg, until November 18, 1961, so he would have back in Darlington with the car at his disposal.

The Northern Echo: Doreen and Arnold Rycroft on their wedding day in 1960 at St Andrew's Church, Haughton

Doreen and Arnold married (above) at St Andrew’s Church, Haughton, on June 3, 1960 – Doreen died in 2020 after they had received a letter from the Queen congratulating them on their diamond wedding anniversary.

For their honeymoon, they motored in the Morris around the Lake District, including taking it up a one-in-four mountain pass. “It barely coped, although once you got it into low gear, it would grunt along,” says Arnold.

“We got rid of the car in 1962. We exchanged it at the Motor Delivery Company in Grange Road for a newer Morris 1100. Somebody bought it and I saw it parked up in Bright Street, and the next time I saw it was when I came across its numberplate in a scrapyard at Haughton Road in 1966.

“I had to take a day off work when I found it because that car meant so much to me!”

He kept the numberplate until a clear-out last year, but he still has Frank’s AA badge (below), with his membership number – 0495524 – which can be seen on the front of the Morris Minor in the 1961 picture.

The Northern Echo: Arnold Rycroft with the AA badge that was on the front of the Morris Minor in 1961

The Northern Echo: Fred Lupton with Arnold and Doreen Lupton and their children, Susan and Christopher

Fred Lupton with Arnold and Doreen Lupton and their children, Susan and Christopher

FRANK LUPTON was born in Harrogate in 1892 where his family had a successful fruiterer and greengrocery business. He met his wife, Florence, when delivering fruit and veg to the house where she was in service.

During the First World War, Frank served in the Royal Field Artillery, being awarded the Military Medal for his bravery at Albert, in northern France, in 1918. In peacetime, his family sent him to Middlesbrough to open a fishmonger’s, and then into Darlington when they opened a similar business at No 24, Blackwellgate. He and Florence lived above the shop until the business moved to larger premises in Skinnergate. No 24 is, of course, now the Guru boutique...

READ MORE: PETER THE PARK PENGUIN AND THE MANY MYSTERIES OF THE GURU OF BLACKWELLGATE

The Northern Echo: Guru in Blackwellgate, Darlington