TWO-MINUTE silences were impeccably observed across the North yesterday.

As the nearby St Nicholas Church clock struck 11am, a ceremony took place in Durham Market Place.

Three buglers sounded the Last Post, prayers were said by the Dean of Durham, the Very Reverend Michael Sadgrove, and shoppers, traders, tourists and students in the market place stood silent until the buglers played the reveille.

In another ceremony, youngsters from Cassop Primary School, in County Durham, took part in a silence alongside a new war memorial outside Quarrington Hill Community Centre, near Durham.

The pupils have helped to research details of the 40-plus local men honoured on the memorial who lost their lives in the world wars.