Several regional newspapers are currently running aerial shots of their towns and cities - and selling copies of the pictures to readers.

But the Northern Echo has gone one better and started a series of fascinating aerial shots taken 50 years ago.

The broadsheet newspaper is displaying the pictures big and bold every Friday with detailed information for readers to point out familiar landmarks and buildings long gone.

The first in the series shows St Cuthbert's Church, Darlington, and the streets around it.

The photographer was Jimmy Blumer, now 69, who in the late 1940s was an apprentice photographer to Sydney H Wood of Blackwellgate, Darlington.

Mr Blumer told the Echo: "He was a great man. He taught me how to gamble, to drink, to swear and to take photographs."

His aerial shots, dating from around 1950, were all taken on a pre-war Mirroflex glass plate camera.

He told the paper: "Like modern cars, modern cameras are dull and boring. They do everything too well. These pictures were an absolute nightmare - hanging out of the window of the plane, changing the glass side. They came out well, though."

Readers can buy copies of the old prints through the paper on or online at Shoppers World

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