Does anyone remember Eleanor Street in South Shields?

“I have tried everyone to get an old photo of Eleanor Street, on the old Woodbine Estate, without success.

“Can you help; the attached photo is the only one I have, but I wanted the street as it was, not being pulled down.”

So if you have one, please let me know.

Meanwhile, the photo we uncovered recently of the Charles Crookston All Stars continues to generate a huge amount of interest.

Ann Hogan emailed me to say: “My father, Kenneth Goodall, who is 88-years-old, has seen your article about the Charles Crookston band and has asked me if I can send you some information about his time with the band.”

These are his words:“I played piano in Charles’s first band, known as the New Hawaiian Swingtette, in 1944, for eight or nine years.

“This was originally a four-piece band, comprising of piano, drums, accordion, and Hawaiian guitar. We played regularly at the Miners’ Hall, in Bede Street, Tyne Dock.

“Charles expanded the band to a six-piece, plus a female vocalist. This band played at venues all over the North East, and we broadcast twice on radio from Newcastle around 1954. This band folded soon afterwards.

“In your photograph, the guitarist is Stan Stokes, and the pianist, I believe, is Ronnie Callaghan.

“With reference to the big bands, as I recall, the last American big band to perform in England was the Count Basie Band, at the Sunderland Empire, in the mid 1970s.

“In the 1940s and 1950s, there were several British big bands which played at the Odeon, in Newcastle, and at the Seaburn Hall, for Friday evening dances. Some of these bands were:

The Ted Heath Big Band – the number one band at the time; the RAF band, The Squadronnaires; the Oscar Rabin band; the Carl Barriteau band; the Teddy Foster band, and the Ken McIntosh band.”

On a different subject, you may remember that reader Joe Robinson asked me to try to help solve a puzzle, prompted by the appearance of a photo in Time Of Our Lives, featuring two workmen, one wearing a beret and the other a cap.

Unfortunately, we featured a very similar picture, not long since and, you’ve guessed it, we used the wrong one with Joe’s story. So, here’s the one Joe was writing about, and here’s his email, which I hope will spur a response.

“I was wondering if you have had any comments about the two men on what looks like a demolition job.

“My family are divided about the man with the beret, is he our father? I was only five-years-old when he died in 1966, and lost the few photos of him that existed in a fire in the late 1980s, so we now only have one photo of him left.

“His name was Edward Robinson, born in South Shields in 1926. He worked as a steel erector and on demolition sites around the area. If you can generate any information about the photo I would appreciate it.”

So please get in touch if you can help.