THERE were at least 28 Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospitals set up in country homes in County Durham during the First World War to help soldiers injured in the frontline trenches to recuperate.

Each hospital was usually overseen by a local matriarch, who was often a member of the landed family who had allowed their home to be taken over, and it was staffed by local girls who had received basic first aid training with local GPs overseeing their work.

READ MORE: THE FULL STORY OF ETHERLEY VAD HOSPITAL

Memories 693 told how the 17th Durham VAD hospital was in The Red House at Etherley, near Bishop Auckland, where Jessica Stobart was the commandant – her inscribed VAD medal has recently surfaced and, hopefully, we are now helping to get it back to her family.

The hospital had at least 54 recuperating soldiers looked after by 37 full-time staff at any one time.

Part of the men’s recuperation involved getting out of the hospital and visiting parts of Weardale, and Peter Nattrass has kindly sent in a couple of fabulous pictures from his collection of them doing just that.

The recuperating soldiers visiting Stanhope, with plenty of nurses, on September 22, 1915  (Image: Peter Nattrass) Accompanied by many nurses, the men visited Stanhope – is that them in the castle? – on September 22, 1915, and then Rookhope on October 5, 1915, and there is a third brilliant picture of them all in St John’s Chapel, on the cobbles outside the town hall.

The soldiers at Rookhope, on October 5, 1915 (Image: Peter Nattrass) “The Stanhope and St John's Chapel images are postcards which were produced by Austin Wood of Bishop Auckland, so presumably he travelled with them from Bishop,” says Peter, “and the Rookhope one has written on the back: 'From Etherley V.A. Hospital'.

“I've seen other similar cards on my travels – a party visiting Brancepeth Castle comes to mind –so these visits would be part of the wounded soldiers’ rehabilitation.”

READ MORE: CHICKEN GOGGLES, A KINGFISHER CATCHER AND A WEATHER PROGNOSTICATOR: A HISTORY OF THE COUNTRYSIDE IN 100 CURIOUS OBJECTS

The Stanhope and Rookhope outings are by “Mr JJ Aubin’s party of wounded soldiers”. Mr Aubin, of 7 Regent Street, Bishop Auckland, was a shopkeeper and chartered accountant who raised funds to give the Etherley patients a trip out. The interest the visits generated was then used to raise further money for the war effort.

A fabulous picture of the recuperating soldiers, in two vehicles, arriving at St John's Chapel in upper Weardale.  Plenty of women, and plenty of cyclists, have turned out to greet them. The picture is taken from the balcony of the town hall opposite, and the view has hardly changed today. The Google StreetView image below says that T Dawson & Son has become Art & Glass KH, a glassmaking studio (Image: Peter Nattrass) Google StreetView image of St John's ChapelREAD MORE: DRAMA OF THE 1926 EAST COAST MAINLINE TRAINWRECK