SCHOOL PUPILS are learning about Teesside’s links to the 1930s Spanish civil war, including how children evacuated from the Basque country were given shelter at Hutton Hall near Guisborough.

History is really coming alive for youngsters at Billingham South Community Primary School, they have met the daughters of one of the Guisborough Basque refugees while they are also discovering the links to Billingham and Stockton too.

Sharon Hardy, who lives in East Harlsey, North Yorkshire, and Julia Lee, from Stockton on Tees, are daughters of Fermin Magdalena, a Basque boy refugee. They visited the Billingham school to meet children in teacher Jess Brownlee’s history club. Supported by the GMB trade union, the history club has been researching the Spanish civil war and connections to Stockton and Billingham.