NEXT week's Memories looks likely to be rooted in 1965, and while I was trying to rootle out some material I stumbled across this fascinating photo.

It is from the Echo of May 12, 1965, and it shows the start of the clearance of Priestgate for the extension of the King's Head Hotel.

The photographer didn't have to go very far to get his picture: I reckon he took from the top floor of the Echo's building. You can see the clocktower in the background, plus the roofline of Barclay's bank and the bulk of the original King's Head.

This was a time when Darlington Co-op dominated Priestgate: it's last store can still be seen on the south side of the street. This is an usual view of it. It looks like a 1920s building. I think I can just remember it in the back of my mind as being there when I first came to Darlington in 1989. I think it succumbed pretty soon after for the Cornmill Centre.

The 1965 picture shows the clearance of the Co-op on the north side of Priestgate. It looks to have been a substantial site, but what intrigues me most is that surviving wall in the centre of the picture with a white arch on it. Could that possibly be the last remnant of the once-famous Co-op dancehall in Priestgate?