A CENTURY of village history was wiped out in less than a week, when bulldozers turned an empty primary school into a pile of rubble.

It is a year since the last children moved out of Eldon Lane school, in Coronation, to start afresh in a new building - the Prince Bishops Community Primary - on the edge of Coundon Grange.

When demolition contractors the John Wade Group finishes its work next week, it is moving on to another casualty of the shake-up, the Dene Valley school in Close House, which opened four years after Eldon Lane in 1912.

Durham County Council has not yet decided what will happen to the empty sites.

Foreman at Eldon Lane, Myles Swift, from Bishop Auckland, understands why people are sad to see the old buildings disappear.

He said: "They are good, solid buildings but that doesn't make them any harder to knock down. In some ways it is a shame to see them go.

"Everything in the building that can be used again will be sorted and recycled.

"Nothing goes to waste. The stone and cement will be used as hardcore in road building and the wood goes to chipboard manufacturers for kitchen worktops."

Former councillor Chris Foote-Wood, a long-serving governor at both schools, said: "Eldon Lane was built for about 300 pupils and numbers had dropped to under 100 when it closed.

"I am sad to see it go, because it was a very much-loved school. The staff were there almost for life.

"I was chair of governors for almost all my 30 years there, and it was a struggle to keep the old building going. One disadvantage was that we had to cross the road to get to the playing field."

"I am hoping that one benefit will be that there is now land available for residents of nearby Richard Terrace to park their cars, because that has been a big issue."