AT the time it was a handy way of filling a gap in a door frame, but 116 years later the newspaper, which a builder used in a County Durham home, has become an historical artefact.

A copy of the North-Eastern Daily Gazette, dated October 23, 1886, was discovered as builders replaced the back door of Isabel and Michael Rossall's home, in Hunwick, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham.

Mrs Rossall said: "The builder was just taking the door frame out and all this rubble from the wall fell down on to the floor. I'm sure it was put there when they built the house in the 1880s."

Still perfectly readable, the newspaper carries an advert looking for "a good, strong servant", and a graphic account of how a miner near Dowlais was involved in an industrial accident that resulted in him being "fearfully mutilated, his head being completely severed".

On the back page an article titled "The Danger of Church Bells", details how the ringing of church bells is a "needless and vexatious ceremony" that can aggravate diseases and lead to a shortening of life.

Another story reports on the death of a man in a pub and how the publican tried unsuccessfully to revive the man by bathing his face in brandy.

Mrs Rossall, a music teacher, said: "It's social history in a nutshell. It's amazingly well preserved."

The newspaper was printed at a number of locations, including Priestgate in Darlington, where The Northern Echo's head office is still situated. It ran from 1881 to 1936, when it became the North Eastern Gazette and eventually the Evening Gazette.