A PHOTOGRAPH of gents outfitter and tailor Fred Burns' shop brought back lots of memories for readers - judging by their response.

But it was taken, say readers who were around at the time, on Bolckow Street - not Hill Street as stated. Similarly, some readers were doubtful of the photograph showing the shop front of H. Newboulds' premises on Linthorpe Road, recalling that the front entrance was changed from left to right in the mid-Sixties.

One reader recalls how Fred faced competition from the multiple tailor head on by offering a free overcoat with every suit he sold. Other shops on the same row, he says, included an ironmonger, later Appleyards and Bolckows coal office, but finally the Citizens' Advice Bureau. Other premises in the area were the county court, Richards hairdressers, former Hippodrome building, and the rear of Willy Smith's billiard saloon.

Anyone who went for made-to-measure suits could hardly mistake the distinguished proprietor with his thick sideburns and a tape measure permanently fixed around the collar of the elegant suits he wore.

One former young blade, Richard Lambert, recalls the meticulous care which Fred took with every order, each hand-stitched, and a necessary part of any young man's wardrobe in the Sixties. Richard, of St John's Close, believes that when Fred Burns left his Bolckow Street premises, he traded from premises opposite Uptons on Linthorpe Road. "I bet there are a good few Fred Burns' suits still around; they were well made," adds Richard.

And a Stockton reader kindly listed other businesses adjacent to Fred's shop, including a fireplace shop, Althams' tea rooms and household goods shop, Lightfoots fruit warehouse, and Blackburns dairy.

And Ernie Reynolds provides an interesting snippet of history regarding the site of the county court offices which, he says, was formerly a Quaker cemetery. "I did hear my parents taking about coffins being exhumed during the night. It was cleared around 1900," says Ernie.