A lone 21st-century machine triggered the swift demise of a 250 million-year-old landmark on the North-East coast, in February 2004.

The ancient beach stack at Blackhall, County Durham, which had weathered centuries of storms, was brought down to earth with what seemed like indecent haste.

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In little over an hour, a digger ripped apart the arched 15-metre high pillar leaving geologists to sift through its remains as they sought to uncover precious secrets of the region’s prehistoric past.

Teams of experts ensuring the safe demolition of the historic pile joined local onlookers who had come to watch their familiar landscape change forever.

The ongoing erosion by the tidal waters had finally prompted Durham County and Easington District Councils in consultation with English Nature and Durham Heritage Coast management that the rocky outcrop should be brought down before it became an active danger to beach users.

It had been estimated that the delicate demolition work would take up to two days to complete. But only minutes into the operation it was clear that the structure was to show little resistance to modern machinery.

With nothing but a pile of crumbling rock left on the beach, district geologists Brian Young and David Turnbull painstakingly searched for any traces of fossils.

Mr Young, who is based at the British Geological Survey, said: “In geological terms, sea stacks are fleeting objects and over time are all subject to erosion by the sea until eventually they collapse.”

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He said the Durham coastline was world famous for its unusual geology and beautifully preserved fossils.

Supermarket shoppers got more than they bargained for at the end of February, 2004, when they witnessed a wedding.

Asda, at Monk's Cross, York, notched up a superstore first when its aisles served as a church for a couple who met at the checkout.

Jill Piggott, 42, and Pete Freeman, 54, married in the George clothing department of the store – the first supermarket in the country to be granted a licence to hold weddings.

A Highland piper played as checkout operator Jill entered the store with ten bridesmaids and made her way up the travelator.

Wearing a strapless white gown decorated with sequins and beads, she walked beneath arches of lilac and white balloons towards 110 waiting guests and her nervous fiance.

Her bridesmaids, in lilac, followed as the party went through the menswear and underwear sections to the ceremony in the shoe department.

City of York head registrar Robert Livesey, who has conducted several civil weddings, performed the ten-minute service.

He said: "The venue here in the store has created great media interest being the first-ever wedding to take place in a supermarket.

"But, to put it into perspective, this is where they met and it holds a great deal of significance to them both."

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The groom explained how he met his bride: "I used to come here every day shopping with my daughter and our eyes just sort of met at the checkout."

The father-of-three said it was his idea to marry at the supermarket.

"I just said it as a joke but it just sort of took off. But it's as good as anywhere, " he said.