Stories of smocks, staircases and street pillars in old Durham City

Let's start with street pillars, as we can see one in this July 1968 picture of Dun Cow Lane. Dun Cow Lane is in the shadow of Durham cathedral and is one of the oldest streets in the city – perhaps it was along here that the monks carrying Cuthbert’s body and following the milkmaid with her dun cow first approached the site where they would establish their shrine.

But on the corner in our picture you can see an extremely interesting post marked “7/2”, if you find posts extremely interesting, that is.

“It is a GPO Street Pillar,” says Mark Nimmins. “It was a secondary cross-connection point (SCP) which was usually between a primary cross-connection point (a PCP or green cabinet) and a telegraph pole.”

From 1945, the main cables ran from the exchange to a green cabinet. From there, they radiated out to street pillars from which they radiated to “distribution points”, or people’s homes.

“The pillars were originally made of a fragile asbestos cement and were often replaced with a steel casing, as has happened with the one in your photo,” says Mark.

Since the 1970s, the street pillars have been replaced by green cabinets.

“The old asbestos pillars are now quite rare but some still exist,” says Mark. “The present green cabinet has retained the same reference number 7/2 which means it is SCP number 2 connected to PCP 7. PCP 7 is outside 66 Saddler Street, which was formerly the main Post Office.”

A Google StreetView image from 2020 showing the corner of Dun Cow Lane and North Bailey with a green cabinet having replaced our Street Pillar

These children wandering up Dun Cow Lane in July 1968 have walked past the exciting telephone Street Pillar 7/2 just out of shot on the bottom right and are straining their necks to look up left at the giant cathedral. They don't know what they're missing

The Whitesmocks junction on the old Great North Road, now the A167, on the western edge of the city of Durham. It gets its name not from the snow seen in our picture from January 1965 but because of the Whitesmocks Inn which once stood near here. It, in turn, got its name from the white smocks apparently worn by waggoners who worked on the wagons of the Great North Road. Smocks were a rural worker’s overall – Thomas Hardy talks of “stalwart ruddy men and boys dressed mainly in snow-white smock-frocks” – and were made of a coarse bleached linen.There’s a great story that the body of the Earl of Derwentwater rested at Whitesmocks on its way to be buried in his family vault at Dilston, near Corbridge, after the earl was beheaded at the Tower of London on February 24, 1716. He had been one of the leaders of the 1715 Roman Catholic rising which aimed to replace George I with the Old Pretender, James Stuart, from Scotland. The earl, who owned considerable estates in Northumberland, was a charismatic fellow and had had many people trying to persuade the king to spare his life – the House of Lords set up a petition on his behalf, a huge bribe was offered for his release, an armed party was standing by to rescue him, even his pregnant wife pleaded in person with the king. All to no avail, as George regarded him as the most dangerous Jacobite in the North East. His execution, though, turned him into something of a romantic local hero, and when his body rested at Whitesmocks, a vivid display of the aurora borealis lit up the nightsky. For centuries afterwards in the region, the northern lights were known as Derwentwater’s Lights – are they still?

The Watergate, at the south end of South Bailey, was one of three gates in the massive – up to 50ft high – masonry walls that Bishop Ranulf Flambard built around the city at the start of the 12th Century. Not that he’d recognise this one – it was substantially rebuilt in 1787.This picture was taken in March 1969 and the Grade II* listed gate has not changed much since then

SIR John Duck was Durham's Dick Whittington. He arrived a penniless boy, fell in love with a butcher's daughter, but was drummed out of the city in 1656 when the other butchers discovered he was not a member of their guild.

Trooping disconsolately over Framwellgate Bridge, he became aware that he was being followed by a raven, with something shiny in its beak.It swooped down and dropped a gold coin at his feet. As he picked it up, an old man stepped onto the bridge, cursing at the two cows he was driving to market.

When John asked him what was wrong, he said he had had nothing but trouble all day from the stubborn beasts and he would be greatly relieved if someone bought them from him.

So John handed over the gold coin. The old herdsman departed happily, and John turned once more for Durham City, where he sold the cows at a handsome profit.

It was the start of his new career as a cattle-trader, out of which he rose to become Mayor of Durham in 1680. His rise was complete when he bought a prominent house in Silver Street which he fitted with one of the wonders of the day: a staircase made of dark oak.

Durham Black Oak Staircases were once a feature of the finest houses in the district – there is still the Black Staircase in Durham castle, which bucks like a ship on the sea when someone walks up it – and Sir John’s was one of the finest. In the 20th Century, it became a major feature of Lyon’s Café, but when that was demolished in 1962 – this picture was taken in December 1960 when the fateful decision was made – the staircase was dismantled and it ended up at Beamish museum.

A fascinating picture of North Bailey in May 1964 for several reasons. The picture was taken to illustrate a story about how the old gas lamps of the city were being replaced by new electrical lamps. The old lamp, complete with supports just beneath the mantle for the lamplighter to lean his ladder against, is at the front, but what is going on behind? The Land-Rover with the Darlington numberplate is part of a Tyne Tees Outside Broadcast Unit and beyond that is a much older car with a striped roof. They must have been filming something

Claypath in Durham in September 1989 with an MG Metro centre stage. By chance, this column had an MG Metro when this picture was taken. The exhaust pipe ran directly beneath the handbrake and heated the handbrake handle so that at the end of a long journey, the metal casing around the handbrake was too hot to touch. It caused the carpet around the brake to melt away, but as the outside of the car was rusting away even faster, it didn’t matter much

In 1979, Witton Gilbert won a top Tidy Britain award with the judges particularly impressed with “the total absence of litter”. Much of this was credited to the work of streetsweeper John Scott, seen here in streetsweeping action

Welcome to the city of Durham, arriving from the west down the A690 at the Milburngate junction in October 1969. A forest of modern buildings has sprung up where the cars are parked, obscuring the view of Framwellgate Bridge

If you can tell us anymore about street pillars, staircases or smocks, or any of the other stories revealed by our pictures, please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk

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