THE story of one of Teesside's most famous families will be told at a museum at Christmas.

Sketches and recitations about the Ropner family will be performed at Preston Hall in Eaglescliffe, near Stockton, this month.

Robert Ropner was Prussian and only 19 when he became a stowaway on a ship he thought was headed to Australia in the 1850s.

Instead, the penniless youth arrived in the North-East and went on to become a shipping magnate and one of the region's richest men.

The Conservative MP for Stockton bought Preston Hall, where the world's first passenger railway once travelled, and made it his family home.

The sketches will take place on Saturday and Sunday, December 18 and 19, from 4pm to 6pm.

There will also be musical performances and traditional Victorian Christmas fare on offer.

Tickets are £5, available from Stockton Central Library or by calling (01642) 528130.

Published: 07/12/2004