CROWDS flocked to watch a piece of history as the Queen's Jubilee baton continued on its path through the region yesterday.

The baton, which contains a message from the Queen, arrived in the Market Place, Darlington, last night, after travelling south through County Durham.

Wellwishers turned out along the route from Bishop Auckland into Darlington town centre, where an evening celebration was held to mark its arrival.

Earlier in the day, the baton set off from Newcastle on the first leg to Castleside, County Durham.

From there, it went to Consett, Lanchester, Durham City and then Bishop Auckland, where children waved their flags and town centre shoppers stopped to watch.

Prominent members of the community were invited to take part in the relay, including John Waterson, of Darlington, who has dilated cardiomyopathy (a heart complaint), Hannah Russell, an 11-year-old with cerebral palsy, and Paul Hamilton, a world champion Thai-boxer.

Earlier in the day, the bygone days of magnetic clouds and sunshine were relived in Darlington town centre thanks to the BBC's weather team.

About 50 eager children - and a few adults - did their Michael Fish or Ulrika Jonsson impressions, with each given a couple of minutes to perform in front of the cameras.

There to help was weather forecaster Carol Kirkwood, who has presented the weather on BBC News 24 since 1998.

Tim Gallager, a BBC Breakfast News producer said: "These days have been really fun, and Darlington's been a total laugh. There's definitely a lot of potential here in the North-East."

The two people Tim thought had the most potential were 12-year-old Charlotte Peacock and her eight-year-old sister Victoria, who have recently relocated to Darlington from Houston, Texas.

Charlotte Peacock said: "That was great fun, I really enjoyed myself, but I don't think weather forecasting's for me - I want to work with horses."

Dance and drama shows on a huge stage in the Market Place were presented by Darlington area schools as part of the baton relay extravaganza.

There were performances by pupils from St Theresa's Primary, Firthmoor Primary, Skerne Park Primary and Hurworth Comprehensive.