What stories were in the Hexham Courant 150 years ago

10 years ago

FEARS: Desperate householders in Haltwhistle kept up an all-night vigil to protect their homes from being flooded for the third time in a year. Residents of The Mart development battled rising floodwater with brushes and brooms. 

FIRE PLANS: Plans for a new fire station for Hexham were rejuvenated by Northumberland County Council officials. The modern new fire station would also offer accommodation to community groups.

Geoff Brooker, the landlord of the Dipton Mill Inn with the barrel of urine logo (Image: Newsquest)

25 years ago

CLOSURE: A pioneering scheme set up in Hexham to help rehabilitate people with long-term mental illness shut down with the loss of 20 jobs. Bosses of the Inisfree rehab project at Oakwood decided to close it in 1998.

DISGRACE: Hexham's main shopping street in the town centre was branded a disgrace that fell way below the standards of other market towns in the North East. Town councillor John Lynch said Fore Street was a 'mess' with puddles, bits of tarmac and bits of concrete pulled out of the road.

BARREL OF LAUGHS: The Dipton Mill Inn in Hexhamshire had been inadvertently marketing its Camra-award-winning ales with an engraving depicting two men carrying a barrel of urine for six years.

50 years ago

TERROR RAID: Two masked men burst into the Robin Hood pub at East Wallhouses armed with a saw-off shotgun and escaped with thousands of pounds in cash.

UNLUCKY: A glider pilot was forced to make an emergency landing at Humshaugh after his craft was struck by lightning.

PURCHASE: Tynedale Council bought the Old Grammar School in Hexham's Hallgate as it needed extra office space.

75 years ago

RESCUE: A member of the St John Ambulance Brigade used a homemade canoe to rescue an injured Boy Scout from the flooded River South Tyne in Bellingham.

OBJECT: Objections were raised to constructing a new road bridge at Haydon Bridge as  it would threaten houses in John Martin Street, some dating from 15th and 16th centuries.

UNFIT: Prudhoe's medical officer of health said 83 per cent of houses in Edgewell area of town, including those in Greener Street, Ruskin Street and Tennyson Street, were unfit for human habitation due to damp.  

100 years ago

FALSITIES: A judge at Hexham County Court upheld the claim from a retired butcher that he should not have to pay 10 guineas for a set of false teeth because they did not fit well enough.

CHEEK: A youth caught fishing in the Tyne at Eltringham without a licence said: "I won't take out a licence until you put more fish in the river." He was fined 10 shillings (50p).

125 years ago

BURN OUT: Just as firemen gained control of a haystack fire at Hedley, they ran out of water. By the time more water was obtained, the stack had burnt out.

SCORCHER: The hottest day of the year was recorded at Wentworth nurseries in Hexham at 85F.

150 years ago 

NO YOLK: A brown leghorn hen in Haydon Bridge laid an egg at exactly 11am every day for 74 days.

TOP MARKS: Schoolchildren in Allendale were said to be well-behaved and showed better than average intelligence.