The collection was put together by a Darlingtonian who lived his latter years in Scotland but never cut connections with his hometown, building up a large collection of framed images of it. Some of them are the standard views which, to this day, can be seen adorning many Darlington homes, but several of them are unusual. They are in Thomas Watson’s auction on Tuesday, which starts at 10am.
They are divided into four lots – 270, 274, 280 and 284 – with estimates of £60 to £100 each. Viewing is over the weekend and Monday, and it gives us the chance to look at some old pictures of the town..
. An interesting etching of Prebend Row in late Victorian times with the town clock on the right A very colourful view of Dinsdale Spa, near Middleton St George, with the 70-bedroom hotel on the clifftop on the right today being private residences with the Dinsdale Spa golf course wrapped around it. The luxurious hotel was built in 1829, and even the former Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington stayed there to drink and bathe in the whiffy waters that came out of a well near the river.
However, the hotel was too large and too much of a steep climb above the riverside well and by the 1860s it had been converted into "a "retreat for mental invalids" The 1895 Royal Agricultural Society Show was held at the Hummersknott mansion, where Carmel school is today, and was one of the greatest social occasions in Darlington. More than 100,000 people, including British and foreign royalty, attend.