Latest news with #StocktonOnTees
BBC News
3 days ago
- General
- BBC News
WW2 air raid shelter found under Stockton school playground
A hidden World War Two air raid shelter has been rediscovered under a school workers were carrying out refurbishment work at Oxbridge Lane Primary in Stockton-on-Tees when they found a strange concrete manager Jason Harrison described excavating and uncovering the distinctive arch shape before realising it was a Lauren Amerigo said it was an "incredible discovery" that had fascinated the children, some of whom had been studying the era at the same time the shelter was revealing itself. Mr Harrison said: "This is the first time I've found anything like this. We didn't know it was there."We were getting ready to connect some pipework and we uncovered the concrete top. "As we excavated down a bit we could see that it was a sort of bell shape." The bunker is approximately 24ft long and had partially flooded with water which has since been Harrison believes it is a Stanton Air Raid Shelter which were mass-produced by the Stanton Ironworks Company near architect will inspect the structure before a decision is made about what to do with it. 'Hide under table' The discovery has thrilled Year Six students, including 11-year-old Skyler who said: "It was exciting to learn we had an air raid shelter under the playground, but I wasn't very surprised. "Our school is quite old, but I didn't expect it to be so well-preserved."It looks just like one of the shelters we saw when we visited Eden Camp Museum. "My great-nana and great-grandad were alive during the war, but they didn't have a shelter, they used to hide under the kitchen table."We learned that boys and girls would often have separate shelters and I think it might be the boys' one because there is an old sign on a wall nearby that says 'Boys'."Mr Harrison and school staff agree and suspect there may be a second shelter hidden somewhere under the Amerigo said: "This has been an incredible discovery that brings history to life right beneath our feet. The children are absolutely fascinated."It's been a powerful reminder of the lives lived here before us and we're excited to explore how we can use the shelter's history to support our pupils' learning." Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
6 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Jodey Whiting: New inquest opens into Stockton benefits mum's death
A new inquest into the death of disabled mum of nine, who took her own life after her benefits were stopped, has heard she was ''shocked, distressed and desperate''.Jodey Whiting, from Stockton-on-Tees, who had numerous physical and mental health issues, was found dead in 2017, two weeks after being denied Employment Support Allowance (ESA) because she had been deemed fit to 42-year-old's mother, Joy Dove, has spent years campaigning for a fresh hearing after the original lasted 37 minutes and did not include information from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).Ms Dove, 71, said as a result of the DWP's decision, her daughter "lost hope". The inquest in Middlesbrough continues. In 2016, Ms Whiting missed a benefits assessment after being admitted to hospital with pneumonia, the inquest heard, which was followed by doctors finding a cyst on her was only after being finally discharged that a letter from the DWP was found among the unopened mail at her flat asking why she had not attended a recent medical assessment.A subsequent letter then arrived telling her she was "fit to work". Giving evidence at Teesside Coroner's Court, Ms Dove said she could see a change in her daughter from that moment said: "Jodey said, 'I can't breathe, I can't walk, I can't walk out of the door. What am I going to do?'''She lost hope, she worried she wouldn't be able to pay her bills and have nothing to live on."In the letters she left for her children following her death, Ms Whiting wrote: "I've had enough, I want peace." The coroner at the original inquest in May 2017 recorded a verdict of Independent Case Examiner (ICE) concluded in 2019 there had been a number of serious failings in the DWP's handling of Ms Whiting's the end of her evidence, Ms Dove said: ''It was the DWP that caused it. There's no way it was anything other."A representative from the DWP is due to give evidence at the inquest, which is expected to last three days. If you have been affected by any issues in this report, help and support is available on the BBC Action Line. Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Times
15-05-2025
- Times
Teenager held for drug smuggling ‘was meant to be visiting friends'
A British teenager arrested for smuggling drugs into Georgia after going missing in southeast Asia told her family that she was going to visit a friend who had moved to the Philippines. Bella May Culley, 18, is in police custody in the former Soviet republic, accused of illegally buying, possessing and importing large quantities of narcotics, including marijuana. If found guilty, she could face life imprisonment. Culley, from Stockton-on-Tees in Co Durham, had been travelling in Asia for the past month, where she had been scuba diving and partying on the islands of Palawan and Panay in the Philippines. Her family last heard from her on Saturday when she was in the Thai resort city of Pattaya. They reported her missing to local police and
