10/02/05

When I was a schoolgirl during World War Two, High Row was a Saturday morning rendezvous for meeting friends. Fox's Caf, at the Bondgate end of the Row, roasted coffee and the smell was wonderful.

My most vivid memory is, aged 13, cycling home from the Girls' High School with my friend Betty. We had had cookery and in my bike basket was a bowl of blancmange that had refused to set. We were riding in single file with Betty in front.

For some reason she came to a sudden stop. My front wheel caught in her back one and off I came along with the blancmange. Giggling loudly we attempted to scrub up the mess with a sheet of brown paper when a large black car stopped behind us and out stepped Miss Varley, our Latin mistress.

"Miss Harrison wishes to speak to you," she said.

"Harry" was our very formidable headmistress. The giggling stopped as we got to our feet. Not only were we causing a scene in the street, but our hideous school hats were in our pockets, not on our heads. We were letting down the tone of the school. This was the worst crime one could commit in Harry's eyes.

I can't remember what our punishment was that time, but I do know that I've never eaten any blancmange since. - Jess Chambers, Scarborough.

WHY not place the Victorian railings from High Row around another building in the town centre which had its railings removed in the war?

Why don't we all work together to move forward to make Darlington a town where I would like to shop and visit? Let's have more positive views and less negative ones. - Tom Nicholson, Darlington.

LOCOMOTION

THE National Railway Museum at Shildon is well worth visiting and a great success, judging by the numbers of visitors to this new attraction.

Perhaps in time the train service to Shildon station will be suitably improved to match. I hope the museum does well in the Gulbenkian Museum of the Year Award.

However "the UK's industrial and working class heritage is celebrated in the shortlist", according to the Gulbenkian website, which is in contrast to your report that if the museum wins the prize of £100,000, £70,000 could be spent on security for a silver model of the 1825 Locomotion (Echo, Feb 7).

As both the original Locomotion and a full size replica are preserved, I feel that such a sum of money might be better spent on preserving, restoring or even reconstructing a real wagon, van, or even electric locomotive much more appropriate to the railway history and heritage of Shildon and County Durham. Models made of plastic, wood or even silver are interesting, but not a patch on the real thing. - Simon Chapman, Saltburn.

WEAR VALLEY

WEAR Valley Council is trying to do away with another family tradition. It wants to build houses on Howden-le-Wear allotments (Echo, Feb 4). These gardens have been worked by families for years and handed down the generations.

When is this never-ending housebuilding going to stop? What's next: Wheatbottom Gardens, High Jobs Hill? Let's hope they don't pull the Elite Civic Hall down to build houses. - Brian Alderson, Crook.

ROYAL MAIL

I WAS wondering if anyone else had had a bad experience with the Darlington delivery office of the Royal Mail.

I posted a Special Delivery item on December 13 for delivery the next day. Delivery was attempted on December 15, and the item was returned to the office where it was held until I chased it up on January 28.

They unsuccessfully attempted delivery on January 31, leaving no card to tell the intended recipient of their attempt.

Now, seven days later, no-one knows where the package is.

This item is valuable and irreplaceable and I am shocked that, two months after it was posted by Special Delivery, it is still in the system and no-one knows where.

Customer services consistently say I have nothing to complain about. I am unable to complain personally to Darlington as the office mainly has an answer machine and does not respond to messages.

Am I the only one to experience poor service? Perhaps with enough noise they'll buck up their ideas. - Leah Creeh, Dunstable, Beds.

REGIONAL ASSEMBLY

I AM deeply concerned that Councillor Chris Foote-Wood should continue to believe (HAS, Feb 5) that my comments regarding the abolition of the North-East Assembly are a personal attack on him.

This is simply not true. I am merely offering the public facts about what I see as a gross misuse of taxpayers' money.

I respect the fact that the assembly was part of a 30-year dream for Coun Foote-Wood, but in a democratic society we have to abide by results. So the councillor finds himself in the awkward position of sitting on a North-East Assembly against the wishes of the overwhelming no result. It makes him look rather hypocritical.

Rather than demonising those who voted 'no', he may be afforded more respect if he resigned from the assembly. - Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland Conservatives.

COUNCILLORS should respect the wishes of the people (HAS, Feb 5) and disband the unelected assemblies.

Unfortunately, the local parties are merely mirroring their Westminster party policies.

Another example of our shoddy representation in England is in the case of the English student who is going to the European Court of Justice because she is being discriminated against in Scotland over tuition fees.

How did English MPs allow this to happen when a majority of them were against tuition fees? So we have unelected devolved MPs running English departments, unelected and possibly illegal regional assemblies and quangos running amok throughout the country.

If Tony Blair was never keen on elected regional assemblies why is he continuing to support unelected ones?

This Government has been kicking England around since devolution for Wales and Scotland and it's time it stopped. - K Young, Darlington.

PETER MULLEN JNR

THE idea of a junior Peter Mullen columnist is very amusing (HAS, Feb 3). The editor's pithy one-line footnote is an absolute cracker.

Joking aside: Peter Mullen's writing provoked me to check in my thesaurus for words listed under 'provoke'.

A quarter of a page of The Northern Echo could be filled with derivatives that one might use to protest about Mr Mullen's negative bias. I now regard his column as nothing more than a ploy to generate feedback.

It can be overdone. - Tom Cockeram, Leeds.

SOUTH CHURCH

WHEN my ancestor, John Bryson, died in 1880, his fellow townsman placed a stone at the entrance to South Church burial park, Bishop Auckland.

I would be grateful if anyone could tell me where the stone is as I have searched in vain. Postage reimbursed. - Sheila Richardson, 2 West Row, Whitehaven, Cumbria CA28 9AU.