Archaeologists are in the process of excavating a cemetery more than 1,000-year-old which was found at a Teesside school.

The cemetery at Bishopsmill Special School, Norton, dates from the 8th to 10th centuries and more than 40 burials have been excavated so far.

The Anglo-Saxon cemetery is being excavated by Tees Archaeology on behalf of Stockton- Borough Council. The Council are excavating the area prior to extending the school.

Peter Rowe, from Tees Archaeology, said: "Cemeteries are very rare from this period, and this one is possibly the earliest found so far north.

"Other sites from this date are from cathedral towns like York and Ripon so it is exciting that we have a similar site from an area like Norton that would have been rural in the Anglo-Saxon period'.

Many of the skeletons at the site have been buried in wooden chests and all that survives of these chests are the iron hinges and fixing straps.

Mr Rowe said: "Each person would have had a wooden chest to store their personal possessions, which would have been divided up on their death amongst friends and relatives and then the chest would have doubled up as their coffin".

The site has produced double burials in large graves, with each one containing a man and a woman lying with their heads at opposite ends of the graves.

Mr Rowe said: "We can only speculate as to what was going on in these twin graves. It seems unlikely that partners would die at exactly the same time so it is possible that spouses decided to join each other in death".

The bones will be examined by specialists and samples taken for radio-carbon dating before arrangements are made for their reburial.