AN appeal has been launched to trace nine people who appear in an exhibition of photographs which capture some of the North-East's social history.

The exhibition, which opens on Wednesday next week, at the Decisive Moment gallery, in Darlington Arts Centre's Media Workshop, show images of ordinary people taken in 1980 on the shop floor at the town's Cummins Engineering plant, in Yarm Road.

Although photographer Richard Grassick has managed to track down most of the people he photographed, he is still looking for nine of the former employees who are featured in the Cummins exhibition.

"These images of the shop floor at Cummins were produced as part of a series of exhibitions about factory work in the region," he said.

"Since July 1965, when Cummins established its manufacturing plant in Darlington, it has been one of the largest employers in the town."

Some of the people featured in the exhibition have died and many have retired. A few are still at the factory today.

Mr Grassick said: "With the help of Cummins marketing staff, we have managed to find most of the people in this exhibition, but these nine people are still proving difficult to trace.

"The opening will be a great opportunity for old workmates to meet up, so of course we would love to invite these nine ex-staff if we can find them."

Anyone who can help is asked to contact Cummins marketing communications manager Andreas Skiadpoulos on (01325) 556251 or Darlington Media Workshop on (01325) 488139.