A BOX crammed with old books and papers has opened up a doorway to the past for a North-East man.

Chris Leonard, from Darlington, moved into his new home earlier this year but had never ventured into the attic.

However, when he eventually went into the loft and rummaged through the box he found there, he discovered ledgers filled with documents including a letter from Queen Mary, dated 1950.

The papers included minutes from meetings in Spennymoor, Darlington, and further afield of the Grand United Order of the Knights of the Golden Horn, an organisation similar to the Freemasons.

Also in the box were badges marked "OM" and two medals, one inscribed to "KT JR Oxley" and dated March 27, 1947, marking his acceptance into the order. The other was similarly inscribed to "KT D Knowles" and dated September 15, 1949.

From the documents, which range from accounts to photographs, he has learned the order's Darlington meetings were originally held in the Greyhound pub in Parkgate, and later in the Coachman in Victoria Road.

The most interesting letter was to Thomas Busby Esq, "scribe" to the 9TM Barron Encampment. It is stamped with the mark of George VI and signed by the private secretary to HM Queen Mary, with a Marlborough House postmark dated May 31, 1950.

It reads: "I am commanded by Queen Mary to thank you for your letter and for your kind expression of good wishes on the anniversary of her birthday on behalf of the Knights of the Golden Horn, 9TM Barron Encampment."