15 years ago: Prince Harry on karaoke in east Durham

The young prince was on an A-level geography field trip with 39 other students from Eton College, looking at the impact of industry on the North-East environment.

Three years before, Prince William showed off his karaoke skills at the Crossways Hotel, in Thornley, east Durham.

Not to be outdone by his brother, Prince Harry was first on stage for the karaoke night singing the Dexy's Midnight Runners’ Come on Eileen with his friends before performing a rendition of Summer Loving from Grease with local girls Kirstie Hubury, 17, and 16-year-olds Nicola Ord and Joanne Thompson.

Kirstie said: "He was a really down-to-earth teenager. He didn't act like a prince and he was just like anyone else having a good time with his friends."

Also that week, an engineer from Hartlepool who left his legacy through landmarks died.

Frank Rowley, born in 1940, designed the Dornoch Firth Bridge in the north of Scotland and the river crossing that carries the M180 over the Trent in Lincolnshire.

He also created the HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong, designed the Eurostar International Terminus at Waterloo Station, led the design team on the A38 Marsh Mills replacement viaducts in Devon, and was involved in the development of the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland.

Mr Rowley died aged 62 from a stroke.

And though millions had been spent to change Hartlepool’s image from the mythical ‘monkey-hanging’ during the Napoleonic Wars, a new discovery reminded locals of the old legend.

A monkey skull was found by a dog-walker near Kwik Save, and taken to the police lost property office.

A police spokesman said: "There has been speculation that it could be a relic of the suspected spy hanging, but we don't know. How it came to be where it was is a mystery.”

Tradition says that a monkey in a military uniform washed up at Hartlepool after a French ship sank during the Napoleonic Wars.

Not knowing what Frenchmen looked like, the locals decided the creature was a spy and it was lynched.