NORTH Sea beaches were left ankle-deep in sea creatures, after tens of thousands were washed up following extreme weather, in March 2018.

A layer of marine animals was left covering beaches in Yorkshire and the North-East after a combination of freezing temperatures and storms killed off a proportion of sea life.

The storms also saw the sand swept away from North Bay beach in Scarborough and Redcar beach, which remarkably revealed the remains of an ancient, petrified forest that had been beneath the sand.

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The forest was thought to be at least 7,000 years old and stretched for several miles from Hartlepool down the coast.

The storm left its ancient tree stumps and branches exposed.

Elsewhere, at Seaham in County Durham and the Holderness coast in Yorkshire countless crabs, starfish, mussels and lobsters covered the beaches – ankle-deep in places.

Bex Lynam, North Sea marine advocacy officer with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said: “I would say what is most likely to have happened is the sea temperatures dropped from about 5C to about 2C.

“That has caused the animals to hunker down, so they become less active and stop moving so much and take refuge from the cold.

“Normally waves would only penetrate down two to three metres, but in these conditions the waves have reached the seabed at about ten metres and dislodged a lot of sea life.”

For grandfather Peter Mirley, July 1968 was the month his wallet, containing a week’s worth of wages and fortnight’s worth of holiday pay, went missing on a school construction site.

The 18-year-old was naturally distraught but his misfortune did not hit the headlines.

However, 50 years later, when builder Mark Higgins was replacing a window at the same school, St Joseph’s RCVA Primary in Newton Aycliffe, it was national news, in March 2018.

Mr Mirley was working as an apprentice joiner on the site when his jacket was stolen. It later turned up on the site’s forecourt but his wallet was nowhere to be found.

The retired firefighter, now 67, said: “I remember being devastated, there was £20 in the wallet and that was a lot of money at the time.

“It’s amazing to think what’s happened in the last 50 years and my wallets been behind that bit of plywood.”

The wallet contained a driving licence, family photographs, and a Durham Technical College card that had been kept in pristine condition for half a century.

Through the magic of social media Mr Mirley was tracked down and reunited with his belongings – although the £20 was missing.

A campaign to oppose the rising state pension age for women gathered momentum in March 2018.

Hundreds of women affected attended a meeting at Bishop Auckland Town Hall on Saturday, March 10, 2018.

Some said they only had 18 months’ notice and would have to work six years longer than they expected to.

It was estimated some women would miss out on over £40,000 in pension payments.

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Bishop Auckland MP Helen Goodman, who organised the meeting, said: “They have not been given enough time to make alternative plans.

“People have paid their National Insurance contributions and expected to get their pension, then, all of a sudden, they are told: ‘No’.

“We are campaigning for long-term reform so we can have a flexible retirement age.