From this newspaper 100 years ago.

On Monday in Brompton, a young hopeful, one of those who the Great Bard describes as "with shining morning face, creeping like a snail unwillingly to school", was disporting himself upon the ice which had mantled the beck at "Scorptown", when the glacial footing gave way. The boy was immersed up to his neck in frigid water. It was well it was not a little deeper.

His mother put him to bed and left him to solitary confinement and his own melancholy reflections. When she came to visit him, she received a horrible shock to see him laid still with his eyes closed and a blood-red mark across his neck. Horror! He had committed suicide! Her darling! - No; the rogue had only marked his throat with jam.

From this newspaper 50 years ago. - The chairman of the National Parks Commission, Sir Patrick Duff, has signed the North York Moors National Park Designation Order.

This is the sixth national park to be designated and will be submitted to the government. The northern boundary begins near Runswick Bay and runs to just below Stokesley. It then runs south towards Northallerton and Thirsk, before heading east, around Helmsley and Kirkbymoorside, and up around Whitby.

The area and boundary area substantially the same as those proposed in 1947 in the Hobhouse Report. It compromises 600 square miles all in the North Riding.

From this newspaper 25 years ago. - An estate agent is to be called in to advise on the possibility of the sale or lease of the college of education in Vane Terrace, Darlington, which is to close.

Although Darlington District Council has expressed an interest in buying part of the large property to use as an arts centre, nor formal proposal has yet been made.

The owners of the building, The British and Foreign School Society, met in London on Tuesday and recommended that while discussions continue about the future use of the building, a real estate agent be instructed by the society to advise on the disposal by sale or lease of whole or part of the property.

The society is worried that it may be left with a building that it cannot maintain properly.

The chief executive of the district council, Harry Rogers, said his officers had been advised to continue talking to the college to see whether part of the building would be suitable for an arts centre.

A formal report is expected by the summer, the building has been an education college for more than 100 years