Tales of death, destruction and the unusual in Darlington

• Barclays bank, on the Highrow (once known as Backhouse's Bank) has a green lawn on it's roof?
  
• Between the Salvation Army Citadel and the park house on North Road, there is an underground tunnel. It is said to have been built for late night visits of nuns, who had gone to meet the needs of a gentleman!
  
• On 2 July 1694 - A terrible storm of hail hit Darlington, 'by which divers persons and cattel were hurt, and Birds in their flight beat down dead', with the hailstones of 6 inches in circumference 'to the bigness of pigeon's eggs'.
  
• Darlington policeman, Ives, aged 25, found dead on duty at Polam, having apparently on a cold and stormy night settled down beside the heating apparatus for the greenhouses where he was overcome by the coke fumes. (Durham Chronicle, 5 April 1878)
  
• The tops of all pillar boxes in Darlington have been covered with special "detector" paint which will indicate the presence of mustard gas.(Northern Echo, 5 Oct. 1939)
  
• "Indignant" of Stockton on Tees writes I was refused to ride on a Darlington trolley because I had no gas mask. The conductor said it was a bye-law. In Stockton we are not compelled to carry gas masks. The Darlington councillors are imitating Hitlerism with their dictatorship. (Northern Echo 28 Oct. 1939)