Chris Lloyd

Darlington

Chief Feature Writer at The Northern Echo

Chris Lloyd, a former North-East Journalist of the Year, is the chief feature writer of The Northern Echo, the great daily of the north.

Articles

Tracing the Saxon roots of the village church ripe for conversion

1 week ago | darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk | Chris Lloyd

Stainton Great stands on clay By it to Stockton there is a way. It has a church without a steeple, A parson blind and un unruly people. Since that rhyme was written, the village of Great Stainton, between Darlington and Sedgefield, has acquired a church with a steeple although Memories is not in a position to say whether the people are any more or less unruly than they were 150 years ago. Soon, though, that church, which closed in February 2023, could be converted into a two bedroom house.
Revealing the 300-year secrets of an old Barney bank with a big future

2 weeks ago | darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk | Chris Lloyd

8 1/1 Today, the old NatWest premises in Barnard Castle looks like any other late Victorian bank, closed and unwanted, its dark and forbidding Gothic design no longer in fashion. But new research shows that it was once the biggest and best house in Barney. And it may have a future as the public face of the castle behind it.
Tracing the Saxon roots of the village church ripe for conversion

2 weeks ago | thenorthernecho.co.uk | Chris Lloyd

Church of All Saints, Great Stainton by Preston Ashton Stainton Great stands on clay By it to Stockton there is a way. It has a church without a steeple, A parson blind and un unruly people. SINCE that rhyme was written, the village of Great Stainton, between Darlington and Sedgefield, has acquired a church with a steeple although Memories is not in a position to say whether the people are any more or less unruly than they were 150 years ago.
Revealing the 300-year secrets of an old Barney bank with a big future

2 weeks ago | thenorthernecho.co.uk | Chris Lloyd

TODAY, the old NatWest premises in Barnard Castle looks like any other late Victorian bank, closed and unwanted, its dark and forbidding Gothic design no longer in fashion. But new research shows that it was once the biggest and best house in Barney. And it may have a future as the public face of the castle behind it.
Can you help in Darlington's search for suit of armour from local tailor?

2 weeks ago | thenorthernecho.co.uk | Chris Lloyd

Coniscliffe Road, Darlington circa early 1880s “THIS,” says Chris Hine, “is a last desperate attempt to locate a book my grandfather prepared in his tailor’s shop in Darlington many years ago.” The book was a catalogue of clothing designs that tailor Gilbert Reay Hine could make in his shop in Coniscliffe Road. Gilbert shop was probably unique, certainly for a tailor’s, as it had a suit of armour hanging over the door, rather like a pub sign – does anyone have a picture of it?
Last chance to come along to the launch of our S&DR200 bookazine

2 weeks ago | thenorthernecho.co.uk | Chris Lloyd

Lola McEvoy and Matt Vickers, the MPs for Darlington & Stockton, with our Stockton & Darlington Railway bookazine The Stockton & Darlington Railway was all about bringing people closer together and, 200 years after it opened, it is still doing that. This week, we were extremely lucky to get a picture of the Stockton West MP Matt Vickers and the Darlington MP Lola Vickers – Conservative and Labour – outside the Houses of Parliament with copies of our fabulous new SDR200 bookazine.
Steamy stories of the world-changing early engines going on display today at Hopetown

2 weeks ago | thenorthernecho.co.uk | Chris Lloyd

Railway Pioneers exhibition opens in Hopetown, with Ruby Gardner, 3, from Darlington inspecting Locomotion No 1Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT THREE railway rockstars have gone on display this week at Darlington’s Hopetown in the first major attraction of the Stockton & Darlington Railway’s 200th anniversary celebrations, and today is “Super Saturday” when there are vintage buses on site, plus live music in the museum and the neighbouring locomotive works are also open for inspection.
Railway rockstars do the locomotion in new exhibition at Hopetown

2 weeks ago | thenorthernecho.co.uk | Chris Lloyd

Railway Pioneers exhibition opens in Hopetown tomorrow pictured Ruby Gardner 3 from Darlington Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT THREE railway rockstars go on display today at Darlington’s Hopetown museum as the 200th anniversary celebrations of the railway that got the world on track move up a gear.
Centuries of lost Stockton stories are republished

3 weeks ago | darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk | Chris Lloyd

The publication of a record book that was lost for nearly a century is inspiring a day of local history events which is to be held next Saturday. The Book of Orders and Accounts for the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees is a minute book in which town authorities recorded various transactions from 1616, when mayor Thomas Lambert received “the summe of five poundes twelve shillings eight pence”, up to December 24, 1835, when mayor Robert Thompson’s accounts were “examined and certified to be correct”.
Eight exquisite items from the Melsonby Hoard which has captivated the nation

3 weeks ago | darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk | Chris Lloyd

The Melsonby Hoard, revealed to a fascinated nation on Wednesday, is a collection of more than 800 Iron Age objects discovered buried in a field in 2021 near Scotch Corner. It provides a spyhole through 2,000 years to a time of chariots, of ceremonial spears, of ornately decorated horses and of a powerful and wealthy local king or queen. Metal detectorist Peter Hands made the initial find, and Durham university, supported financially by Historic England, has done the excavating and research.