WHEN Edward Almond finished his engraving apprenticeship in 1910, he was presented with a problem.

The rules of his apprenticeship said that he could not set up in business within 50 miles of his master.

Because he had grown up in a railway family in York and had learned his engraving trade in the city, this meant an inevitable move away from his friends and family.

He tried Manchester first, but in 1912 he settled on Darlington, which was just beyond the master's reach (he had been apprenticed to Henry Wells, of Castlegate, York, whose workshop and tools are preserved in the city's Castle Museum).

Aged 22, Almond set up an engraving business at 40a High Row, above Dunns' footwear. Today, the street-level shop is Johnsons Drycleaners, with Cornmill Draughting, accessed via the side yard, believed to be occupying Edward's workshop (when Echo Memories called, Cornmill Draughting was too busy draughting to assist).

From the rooms above High Row, Edward inscribed names on silver trophies and monograms on pocket watches. There is little doubt he was highly skilled, being known as one of the finest engravers in the country.

The premises also presented him with a fine view of what was going on in Darlington's main street. He was an artistic man, having won a scholarship to York School of Art, and in the days before the First World War he was trying his hand at photography. His glass slides have recently been re-discovered, and a couple show a military parade passing on High Row beneath his window.

Edward was also called to war and served in the Durham Light Infantry on the Western Front. His three brothers also served and, amazingly, all four survived unscathed.

Edward refused promotion but was paid extra money as a marksman (one down from a sniper) in the trenches around Ypres.

In 1916, he married his Darlington sweetheart, Margaret Hall, and when peace arrived they began building up the business. At one time they had ten female engravers working for them.

In 1942, Edward bought 12 Duke Street, a bigger premises, for £300, and moved the business. His son, Edward Lewis Almond, returned from the Second World War and joined his father, who died in 1965.

In 1962, Edward Lewis employed an apprentice from the Technical School, Alan Moss. When Edward Lewis died in 1991, Alan took over the business, which still thrives at No 12. He also took on a cellarful of dusty secrets which has recently yielded up the glass slides.

Although not involved in the business, Edward Lewis' son, Richard, lives in Richmond. He is a lecturer in medieval history at Darlington College, who appeared on the front page of The Northern Echo in July, when he and Professor Tony Pollard, of Teesside University, helped to prove that Robin Hood was a yeoman and not an aristocrat, nor a peasant