A WEEK is a long time in house-building. Last week, we were telling how historic trees were hopefully safe as Darlington gains a new parkland; this week, timber fencing has already gone up, marking out where the parkland ends and where the “Blands Corner Triangle” begins.
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It is on the triangle that the 44 executive houses are going to go.
But what was so bland about the triangle that it got stuck with such an unprepossessing name?
The triangle is formed by two roads, the A67 and the A167, as they converge on the Blands Corner roundabout where they meet the A66.
Even before the A66 Darlington bypass was built in the 1970s, it was an important junction: the A167 being the Great North Road which swept travellers into Darlington centre while the A67 took them around the outskirts, avoiding any town centre tolls, and set them on their way to Scotland on the A68.
Travellers need refreshing and so there was a pub on the junction called the Angel Inn. Indeed, we think that for much of history, this corner was called Angel’s Corner.
The Angel’s principal customers were the mule-train drivers – men who led long lines of pack ponies, with coal in their baskets, from the mines of Durham to the industries of Yorkshire.
While the mule men slaked their thirst in the Angel, their mules roamed the fields of Blackwell, eating the grass.
However, the invention of railways to carry coal signalled the end of the mule trains and the Angel’s trade dwindled. After probably many centuries of existence, it closed in 1873.
It became a training school for servants and then a school for the children of Blackwell – the southern end looks like a typical late Victorian classroom extension.
But a new breed of travellers needed something else on this important junction: they needed a garage to provide petrol and repairs for their motor cars.
Just after the end of the First World War, a Mr Bland opened a repairshop in the outbuildings of the old Angel Inn. Could he have had the exotic first name of Tyndal? He added a rounded showroom from which he sold Triumph cars and probably American-made Selden vehicles. He also sold Cleveland petrol, which later became part of Esso.
Mr Bland did not last long. In 1931, Messrs Roberts and Robinson ran the “Blackwell Garage” on Blands Corner.
When Blackwell Garage closed in 1971 it was operated by McCormack International, a firm of agricultural engineers. The school, the old Angel and hotch-potch of garage buildings were flattened, and the new headquarters of the Cleveland Car Company was built on the site. It was opened in November 1971 by Lady Anne Pease, whose grandfather, Owen Pease, had founded the CCC in 1904.
The CCC was bought by Sir Peter Vardy and became part of the Reg Vardy dealership. They demolished the 1971 showroom and replaced it in 1996 with a modern sprawl of buildings that was so large it was called “a motor village”.
Today the motor village is part of the Evans Halshaw chain but the name of the very first garageman to grace the corner still lives on.
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ALTHOUGH Blands Corner is today just a shiny, modern motor palace, it does have a historic relic. Tucked away on the lane leading to the golf course is an animal drinking fountain (above) which is usually filled with flowers.
The trough was installed in November 1913 by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association, an august body formed in London in 1859 by Samuel Gurney – a Quaker, Liberal MP. Municipal authorities at that time were beginning to provide clean water to see off the threat of cholera, and the association wanted it to be available to ordinary people and their animals.
Within 20 years, the association had placed 800 fountains and troughs across London. On a summer’s day, 300,000 people refreshed themselves from an association fountain, and on most days, 1,800 horses a day refuelled at one of the troughs.
But the market town of Darlington had nothing to refresh the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of animals that came out of North Yorkshire for sale.
AP Plant of the association explained to the Darlington and Stockton Times: "Only those who week by week see herds of cattle and flocks of sheep driven to the Darlington markets on a Monday, appreciate the agonies of thirst suffered by these poor creatures, many of which have by reason of the length of their journeys, been compelled to leave on the previous day.
"Who hasn't seen many of them on a hot morning with gaping and frothy mouths and lolling tongues urged along as fast as they could drag their weary limbs in order to be in time to take their places in the market?"
It was for this reason, said Mr Plant, that the association had agreed to place a drinking trough on this prominent corner. There are several association troughs of an identical design, also made in granite, around the country, including one on London Wall.
The association survives, giving grants to install new drinking fountains around the world and to restore old ones.
THE only other time that Blands Corner has featured in the headlines was on May 1, 1942, although the censor’s blue pencil prevented the rest of the nation finding out where it was.
On that day, a stray German bomber dropped four high explosive bombs – two 250lbs and two 500lbs – on the field behind Mr Bland’s garage. It was being chased by a British fighter and was eventually shot down off Whitby.
The Northern Echo’s photographer rushed to take pictures of the immense superficial damage its bombs caused to properties around the Blands Corner field, although the wartime censor only allowed the Echo to say that his pictures showed “damaged outbuildings of a country residence after a raid on a North-East village last night”.
But what a lot of damage there was!
The cameraman paid particular attention to the damage at High Linhams, a extremely smart residence overlooking the River Tees that was built in 1926 for banker Edward Backhouse Mounsey and which is now called Foster Hall. The greenhouse and garage of High Linhams were completely destroyed and the local rumour was that the house’s roof had been blown into the air, spun round and come back down almost perfectly on the walls.
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This may not be true, but it was a spectacular blast. A caravanner who had pulled off the Great North Road for a night in a quiet country lay-by had his vehicle destroyed although he escaped unharmed. In fact, the only fatalities were some chickens.
Most houses in Blackwell sustained damage to windows and nearly all of Darlington turned out for a look. Indeed, residents became so concerned by the numbers of “helpers” swarming across the fields looking for souvenirs, that they asked police to remove them.
None of the residents reported having any of their property stolen, but the Blackwell bobby had his pushbike nicked.
Even two miles south from Blands Corner down the A167, Hurworth Place felt the force of the explosions. A large plate glass window in Harry Row’s confectionary shop was sucked out. Until recently, his shop has been the Hurworth Place Post Office. After the blast, the window was divided into panes so that should the Germans attack again, they might not be able to do so much damage.
Fortunately, the windows have not been tested since.
Can you tell us any more about any aspect of Blands Corner, especially its garage or school? Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk
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