Hexham Courant headlines in Tynedale from up to 150 years ago

10 years ago

BUDGET JOY: The Great North Air Ambulance became exempt from paying VAT on aviation fuel in George Osborne's new budget. Over the next five years, the Treasury was to provide grants to cover VAT payments by air ambulance services.

RAGE AGAINST MACHINES: Drivers said machines in Wentworth car park were taking money without issuing tickets, refusing to take money at all or issuing the wrong tickets. 

TOP OF THE POTS: Nearly half of the 12,000 potholes Northumberland County Council pledged to clear by the end of June were in Tynedale. There were 4,811 potholes in Tynedale, with 2,356 in the North Tyne between Bellingham and Humshaugh.

25 years ago

TAX RISE: With a big increase in spending planned, the county was to increase council tax by 9.5 per cent for 1999-2000. This followed an 18 per cent rise the previous year and meant taxpayers in the county expected to pay almost a third more than they did in 1997.

Newly-weds Amanda and Mel Nelson (Image: NQ)

TALK OF THE TOON: Bride Amanda Nelson teamed up with Stocksfield wedding dress designer Rosina Brown to create the wedding dress of her husband's dreams. Her husband Mel was football-mad and Amanda decided to create a dress inspired by Newcastle United.

JUNCTION CLOSURE: Tynedale councillors agreed the partial closure of the A69 Mowden Hall crossroads should become permanent. After a year of the experimental partial closure, there were no accidents at the blackspot where six people had died and 16 were injured. 

50 years ago

CLEARWAY CRITICISM: Northumberland County Council plans to designate the B6318 Military Road as a clearway between Chollerford and Milecastle in a bid to cut accidents came under fire from Hexham rural district councillors. Any move would hit tourism and inconvenience local farmers, they said.

BRIDGE REVAMP: The Ovingham toll bridge over the River Tyne was to close for 10 days while a £72,000 revamp was carried out on it, it was reported.

REGISTERING OUT: Allendale was to lose its registrar's office because of a paucity of deaths and marriages registered there, it was announced. 

75 years ago

DRY DIRECTIVE: An application from Allendale's Riding Hotel for a liquor licence, opposed by Allendale United Temperance Council and 65 villagers there, was turned down by Hexham magistrates. The reason given was that the four licensed hotels already operating in Allendale were sufficient to meet the needs of its 2,000-strong population.

VET MOURNED: One-time Haydon parish councillor and Boer War veteran Matthew John Adamson, of Langley, died at the age of 67. 

100 years ago

WET WET WET: There were only 10 dry days at Falstone in January 1924 it was reported. Altogether, 3.58ins of rain fell during the month, according to weather-watcher the Reverend AJ Dexter.

ON THE ROAD: Councillors at Bellingham agreed to have the Hesleyside road resurfaced for £1,760 and a new stretch of road built at Kirkwhelpington for £350.

CHURCH SCHEME: Plans were drawn up for a new parish church at Bywell. This £3,000-plus project was expected to get underway in the summer, it was reported.

BLAZE AWAY: Moves were made to revive Corbridge's long-defunct fire brigade.

FUNDRAISER: A whist drive and dance held at Slaley Commemoration Hall raised £25 for the National Institute of the Blind.

125 years ago 

FIRE TRAGEDY: A five-year-old girl died after her clothes caught fire at her home in Eltringham, near Prudhoe. Charles Asford, landlord of the nearby Hare and Hounds Inn, dashed to the girl's aid after he heard screams coming from the house but was too late to save her.

HELP AT HAND: Chollerton Parish Council was calling for railings to be fitted on a footbridge on the Gunnerton-Barrasford path.

150 years ago

PIT DEATH: A worker at Wylam Wood Colliery died after falling down a mineshaft. The young man from Corbridge was just about to leave the Wylam pit and return home to his wife and three children when "in a most unaccountable manner" the fatal fall occurred.