A TRIO of miners' widows defied the ageing process by amassing more than 300 years between them, in March 2008.

Emma Brown, Mina Lawson and Jennie Taylor had clocked up more than 306 years between them.

The three miners' widows were close friends and neighbours and all lived independently.

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On March 7, 2008, Mrs Lawson and Mrs Taylor both popped in to Mrs Brown's flat at Blackhall, east Durham, to wish her a happy 103rd birthday.

Though younger than their neighbour, Mrs Lawson was due to turn 103 in June 2008, and Mrs Taylor would celebrate her 102nd birthday in July 2008.

Before moving into their self-contained apartments at Primrose Court, all three lived in bungalows in Patterson Gardens, in the seaside community.

And all three continued to live independent lives and enjoyed meeting together for shopping, having their weekly hairdos and taking part in social evenings.

All three lived through two world wars and each was married to miners.

THE man behind a £250m deal to breathe new life into a redundant North-East shipyard predicted the contract would lead to more than 3,000 jobs, in March 2008.

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About 800 skilled jobs would be created immediately as a result of work to build at least two – and possibly three – drilling rigs at the Haverton Hill yard, near Billingham, Teesside.

But thousands more jobs were in the pipeline as a result of the knock-on effect on other businesses.

The contract for the work, which is worth up to £251m, was awarded to the Teesside Alliance Group (TAG), a consortium that includes Darlington-based Cleveland Bridge, McGill Services and K-Home Engineering, by SeaDragon Offshore.

Speaking to The Northern Echo, TAG chairman David Eason predicted that for every new job at the yard, as many as four others could be created. And with 800 new positions, the "ripple effect" was hoped to lead to another 3,200 jobs being created.

Mr Eason said: "We have been approached by companies worldwide to get involved in drilling rigs."