As the bus came down Greens Lane I considered pointing out Hartburn Primary School, but I wasn’t convinced that my fellow passengers would be interested.

At the T junction we turned right on to Darlington Road, then first left into Hartburn Village. The bus stopped at the corner and we all disembarked. I walked up Darlington Road with JH. Recently widowed, and somewhat disabled following his stroke, he had come to Stockton to meet his new girlfriend. They had met on a dating web site and this would be their first face-to-face encounter. I wished him luck while resisting the temptation to tell him how ECM thought that the sign in the grounds of Elmwood Community Centre read “Trespassers will be executed” (rather than prosecuted).

Within minutes we were in the open countryside. I had been so deep in conversation that I had missed the White House as we passed by it.