AN appeal has gone out to latter-day beauty queens to help piece together the colourful history of an East Durham holiday centre.

For generations, Crimdon Dene thrived as a local tourist attraction and now its fascinating heyday years are to be revived in two displays.

The idea to unfold the history of the once-popular recreation site has come from the Turning the Tide (TTT) project, which has invested millions of pounds improving the East Durham coastline.

And while delving into the bygone years of the Crimdon area the project's team noted that there had been scores of gala days and beauty pageants at the dene during the 1960s and 1970s.

They are convinced that local residents will have hundreds of photographs of these events in their family albums.

Lesley Hehir, tourism development officer at TTT, is anxious to collect as many colour photographs as possible for two displays on specially assembled interpretation boards.

She is particularly interested in any snaps of beauty queens in their sashes, revellers in "kiss-me-quick" hats, children playing with buckets and spades, and family groups enjoying a gala outing.

Any photographs being submitted should be carefully captioned to identify the people in the pictures and sent to Gill Adams, community liaison officer, Turning the Tide, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UQ.

All material supplied for the display boards will be returned.