ONE of the most keenly anticipated moments in the region's cultural calendar for years approached in June 2013, with the return of the Lindisfarne Gospels.

After years of campaigning and months of planning, the priceless medieval manuscript will go on display on Monday, July 1, 2013.

Programme director Keith Bartlett said: "It has been an amazing journey. It has taken two years to put this together and I am really looking forward to it.

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"The exhibition is stunning. We are really pleased with it and I am dying to share it with the people of the region.

"We hope they come and see it and think we have used the responsibility they gave us well."

Professor Chris Higgins, the vice-chancellor of Durham University, which hosted the exhibition in Palace Green Library, said: "This remarkable book is one of the great landmarks of human cultural achievement and has a uniquely important place in the art, scholarship, culture and Christian heritage of the North-East."

Pupils who completed a 50-mile walk to raise funds for a new classroom saw their efforts rewarded with the opening of the timber structure.

Staff and pupils at St John's Chapel Primary School in Weardale, County Durham, spent two years planning the classroom.

Some of the pupils completed the John Muir Way in Scotland to raise £2,000 for the building. The classroom was part of a project that also saw the creation of an outdoor performance space and a wildflower meadow next to the school playing field.

Headteacher Kerrie Evea said it had always been a dream of hers to have such a classroom.

"We have probably got the best school grounds in Weardale and this new room will mean our pupils can make the most of being out here."

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​Finally, tears flowed at a much-loved charity's farewell party.

Stockton Parent Support, which helped about 400 families with special needs children, closed with the loss of 12 jobs in June 2013.

The charity struggled since it lost contracts to provide services on behalf of Stockton Borough Council last year worth £50,000. Founder Amanda Vince said they had hoped "a knight in shining armour" would come to the rescue or the council would re-evaluate, but reality had to be faced.