SCHOOLCHILDREN made their own piece of history to mark the start of a major transformation of their neighbourhood.

Laura Carney and Cameron Bell helped bury a time capsule in the West Lane East area of Middlesbrough to launch a multi-million-pound housing project.

Pupils from Archibald Primary School, in Ayresome Green Lane, helped create the capsule to record and celebrate the changes that are taking place in their community.

Following a competition to design a house of the future, the winning drawings of ten-year-old Laura and six-year-old Cameron were sealed in the capsule along with photographs of the area as it looks today, plans for the new housing and a copy of yesterday's newspaper.

Laura and Cameron helped Steve Jackson, from Yuill Homes, Joan Ford, from West Middlesbrough Neighbourhood Trust (WMNT), and Karen Greet, school mentor at Archibald School, to bury the capsule beneath the floor of one of Yuill's homes on the development.

Mrs Ford, chairwoman of WMNT, said: "We are looking forward to seeing the transformation of the area, and it's great that so many youngsters took an interest in the development through the design competition."