June 11, 1963

FIFTY years ago, the D&S Times was pondering over one of life's apparently intractable problems: where does the North Riding of Yorkshire end and where does Durham begin.

A local government review was being conducted. There was a move to create a unitary authority for all Teesside, because the Durham and Yorkshire riverbanks had common industrial interests, but the Government "just won't listen". Therefore Stockton, whose territory straddles the Tees, had to decide on which side of the divide it wanted to be.

By 19 votes to eight, a Stockton council committee had voted for it to throw its lot in with Durham, and come under the control of Durham's lord lieutenant, high sheriff and assizes court.

"But Coun Miss J Martin said that to the ordinary man and woman in the street in Stockton, the lord lieutenancies were not of importance," said the D&S. "They were more interested in the postal address of the new Teesside and were, for instance, concerned that their birthplace should not be transferred."

June 10, 1916

THE aftermath of the Battle of Jutland filled the paper. For 36 hours from May 31, the fleets of Britain and Germany had engaged off the coast of Denmark – 100,000 sailors aboard 250 ships in what is regarded as the greatest naval battle. The British lost 6,049 men and 113,000 tons of shipping compared to the Germans' 2,551 men and 62,000 tons of shipping, and historians still debate who won this terrible encounter.

The losers were obvious: the men who died. It didn't matter which class you came from, if your vessel was struck, your number was up.

"Quite a gloom has been cast over the village of Wensley," reported the D&S Times, because two of its young men had been killed. Harold Scrivener, 22, and Harry Wilson, 20, had attended the village school, sung in the church choir and competed against one another in swimming races. Both were below stairs at Bolton Hall: Scrivener the son of the head gardener and Wilson the son of the butler.

The son of the rector of Eaglescliffe, Probationer Surgeon Hugh Dingle, had been lost on a destroyer, and Commander Arthur E Silvertop had been second in command of HMS Defence when it had gone down. Cmdr Silvertop, noted the D&S, had been "due to inherit the Lartington estate in Teesdale had he survived Monsignor Witham".

And then there was an item about HMS Indefatigable. Of her crew of 1,019, only two survived. Indefatigable had been under the command of Captain Charles Fitzgerald Sowerby of Snow Hall, Gainford, the brother of Lady Havelock Allan of Blackwell Grange in Darlington. The captain, who was nearly 50, is said to have been found badly injured in the water by the two survivors, but he died before he could be rescued.

One of the youngest on Indefatigable was 16-year-old Midshipman William Nicholas Eden, of Windlestone Hall. His death, said the D&S, capped a tragic two years for his newly-widowed mother.

"Lady Eden's eldest son, Lieutenant John Eden, was killed in action at Ypres late in 1914, and Sir William Eden died three months later," said the report. "The heir to the estate, Sir Timothy Eden, has been a prison of war in Germany since the outbreak of war, and the other son, Mr Anthony Eden, is on active service in Flanders." Mr Anthony Eden, of course, was destined to become Prime Minister in the 1950s.

June 9, 1866

AN industrial dispute was being blamed for an attack on the brickyard of Mr JC Robson, of Darlington, who had taken on non-union workers. Overnight, 30,000 wet bricks had been trampled on by "three miscreants", who had left their boot prints all over the "drying flats".

Mr Robson was offering a £2 10s reward. "It is to be sincerely hoped that such a dastardly piece of business will shortly meet with its desserts and that the vigilance of the police will soon result in their being the safe custodians of the perpetrators," said the D&S.