RECREATION GROUND:

DENE Valley Parish Council is seeking to re-establish the former recreation ground at Auckland Park which was set up and run by a miners\rquote welfare trust, now lapsed.

We now know the names of the original trustees when the land was bought in 1935: Douglas Roy Brooks (Dene Hurst, Ferryhill, colliery agent), William Ivey (William Street, Auckland Park, colliery overman), William Hind (Auckland Terrace, Auckland Park, colliery blacksmith) and Norman Henry Gray (Brook Street, Coundon Grange, lamp room attendant).

They were the trustees of the Auckland Park Colliery Welfare Scheme and were responsible for the Auckland Park and Black Boy Recreation Ground.

If anyone has any records of these men and the trust they ran, we would be glad to have the information. We would also like to know the name of the man employed to supervise this recreation ground in later years.

I am also trying to trace records of the Miners\rquote Welfare Fund, the Miners\rquote Welfare Committee and the Durham District Welfare Committee from 1935 onwards. Again, any information and records would be most helpful. I can be contacted on (01388) 605181 or email footewood@cix.co.uk. - Coun Chris Foote-Wood, (on behalf of Dene Valley Parish Council).

TRIMDON STABLES: IN response to a letter about cruelty to the animals in the stables at Trimdon Village (HAS, June 13), I am extremely distressed and can\rquote t express my disbelief that something like this can happen under our own noses.

One can only assume that when you see a person going in and out of a premises that they are taking care of whatever is inside.

I had no idea what was behind the gate. The gate and hedges are so high that they obscure your vision.

Had I known what was taking place behind those gates I most definitely would have done something about it. - Diane Borsberry, Trimdon Village.

EUROPEAN UNION: A FIFTEEN-year-old student was asked to examine the following problem:

There are 25 countries in a cluster. They have a wide variety of traditions, taxation, health care and education systems. They have many common problems such as barriers to trade, common sea areas, river pollution problems and human rights.

The first suggestion the student made was for each country to appoint negotiators to propose solutions of the common problems. Elected politicians should then debate these proposals and feed the results back to each country\rquote s government, then feed them back to the central body. Each country should then adopt the final agreement.

In answer to the question: what should the elected representatives of the 25 states decide? The reply was that they should get rid of trade barriers, deal with issues of pollution and ensure that human rights were met. In fact anything that crossed frontiers.

On being appraised that he had just invented the European Union and that what he had said was all in the constitutional treaty that has been voted against by France and Holland, the student asked if the people of those countries understood what is in the proposed treaty.

He has been invited to ask people if they understand the European Union and to report back how many people have that understanding. From past experience it will be very few. - Bill Morehead, Darlington.

THANK YOU: I WOULD like to offer thanks on behalf of TimeWatch to all those people who attended, helped out and donated time, money and equipment at the first Thornborough Free Festival on June 4 at Masham.

In all, some 1,500 people came to listen to the music and hear about the henges at Masham and this has been our largest show of support so far.

The event was one of the best festivals any of us has attended - the atmosphere was excellent, bands brilliant and the audience the nicest bunch of people anyone could meet.

The feedback from the townsfolk and businesses is that the event was an outstanding success. - George Chaplin, Chairman, TimeWatch.org, Newton le Willows, North Yorkshire.

FEED THE CHILDREN: OUR small charity, Feed The Children, ships out food, clothing and other goods to Africa where they are most needed.

Our warehouses are full of donated goods ready for despatch but we are in desperate need of funds to pay for the shipping costs.

The tsunami appeal has been a great success for the big 12 charities in the Disasters and Emergencies Committee, to the point where we read they have too much to spend.

Meanwhile, essential small charities like us struggle and now Live8 is in real danger of also redirecting funds from us. The media campaigns have sucked money into them but we know there are people that this surfeit of funds still has not yet reached.

Feed The Children UK is working with people in Africa and the tsunami affected areas who have had little or no aid. We need money to help them. We have and will continue to send containers of essential goods to those areas with your help.

Whilst Bob Geldof is organising concerts and the G8 governments are talking about debt relief help, we are on the ground saving lives.

We urge your readers to visit our website www.feedthechildren.org.uk to see what we are doing and, if they have any spare money for Africa, to send it to us to help people survive and to build communities. - Brian Main, Chief Executive, Feed The Children UK, 2 Tavistock Industrial Estate, Ruscombe Lane, Twyford, Berkshire, RG10 9NJ.

QUARRY PLANS: During the survey of their proposed quarry near the Thornborough Henges in North Yorkshire, Tarmac Northern found pottery (some of it rare) from the time the henges were being used. It is clear evidence of Stone Age lives.

Yet the company would have us believe that only the henges count. It\rquote s like saying the church matters but not the graveyard, the village or the lives of those who used the church hall.

I think Tarmac is rightly afraid to admit that it is proposing quarrying up a Stone Age village.

The carefully decorated pottery made on site, large enough for shared meals, vibrantly tells us of real people\rquote s lives. Quarry that away from the Thornborough Henges and we lose our past.

Archaeology, as a study of past societies, can foster respect for differences in our modern, multi-cultural society.

Why would Tarmac rather we had no connection to our past, to a site equalling Stonehenge in importance and outstripping it in size?

For more information log onto www.timewatch.org - Lynn Shillitoe, Wakefield.

TINY TIM: The article about Middlesbrough\rquote s longest serving player, Tiny Tim Williamson (Echo, May 24) - he played in 603 league and cup games from 1902 to 1923 - reminded me of when I was a kid.

I lived opposite Tim in Coatham, Redcar, and I used to watch him getting his motorbike and sidecar out of the garage in the morning to go up to Ayresome Park. - RJ. Walters, Sandsend, Whitby.