What made news in Hexham and Tynedale 150 years ago?

10 years ago

LEISURELY DEAL: After being ousted from managing the leisure centres and swimming pools it created in Tynedale, Hexham-based North Country Leisure landed the contract to run some of the North East's prestigious leisure facilities. It landed a deal with Newcastle City Council to run the Eldon leisure complex in central Newcastle, along with the Gosforth and Outer West swimming pools.

TRUST CRASH: Hadrian's Wall Trust announced it would fold over the next six months due to funding cutbacks.

GET SET: Hundreds of locals got on their marks to fundraise for Sport Relief at Tynedale Rugby Club. Setting runners on their way was 1966 World Cup winner Jack Charlton as the event's special guest starter.

ROAD CLOSURE: The main road through the North Tyne Valley was to close completely for up to 10 days. Two separate resurfacing schemes were planned for deeply rutted stretches of the B6320 road at Simonburn and Park End near Wark.

25 years ago

BID FAILURE: Thwarted councillors tried to save a piece of Prudhoe's history from the bulldozers. Councillors were stunned to learn the Government rejected pleas to give listed status to a group of historic farm buildings in the new Castlefields estate.

POLICE CHIEF MOVE: Hexham police chief supt. Chris Symonds was to leave the post after taking the position of detective superintendent at Ponteland.  

HOSPITAL FUTURE: Plans for a new hospital in Hexham were given a clean bill of health by town MP Peter Atkinson. The MP had been concerned about rumours among staff at the Corbridge Road hospital that it would be downgraded following a proposed £20m move to the next-door old mart site and that redundancy packages would not be offered to the 130-plus staff about to lose their jobs.

Prudhoe Highfield Middle School pupils in 1999 (Image: NQ)

SCHOOLS LEAD WAY: Tynedale schools came top of the class in Northumberland in Government primary school performance tables. Prudhoe's Highfield Middle led the whole of the county, while the area boasted four out of the top five schools and seven in the top dozen.

50 years ago

GREYSTEAD FIRST: Plans were afoot to establish a parish council at Greystead for the first time. It was prompted by concern among residents of the parish about disruption expected to be caused by construction traffic generated by the forthcoming Kielder reservoir project. 

JOB FEARS: A question mark was hanging over the future of Haltwhistle cleaning equipment firm HypaBlast. Half of its 22-strong workforce had been laid off three weeks previously.

PUBS WITH NO BEER: Pubs in Tynedale were without beer for days due to a delivery workers' strike at Scottish and Newcastle breweries. Affected pubs included Haydon Brige's General Havelock, Corbridge's Golden Lion and the Globe in Hexham.

DEVIL MUSIC: Devil Gate Drive by Suzi Quatro was the best-selling record at the music department of Hexham's Fore Street Robb's store, followed by Mud's Tiger Feet, Teenage Rampage by the Sweet and Rebel Rebel by David Bowie.

75 years ago

BY THE BOOK: Novels by Dornford Yates, now and exceedingly obscure author, were the most popular reading matter lent out by Hexham's then-named Brough Library. Other favourites included Jane Austen, John Buchan, the Brontes and Anthony Trollope.

PILOT FOUND: The body of RAF pilot Frank Brown, a former Hexham Grammar School pupil lost in action six years previously, was discovered in the Frisian Islands and exhumed for reburial in Germany. 

100 years ago

MAN WITH NO NAME: An anonymous benefactor stepped in and paid the £450 bill for repairs required to Hexham Abbey's bells and belfry.

SEEING THE LIGHT: Mickley Coal Company had electric street lighting provided at Hedley-on-the Hill.

125 years ago

FLOOD ALERT: A sudden thaw led to a severe flood alert around Haltwhistle and elsewhere in Tynedale.

VERGER MOURNED: John Graham, a verger at St Augustine's Church in Alston, died aged 75. 

150 years ago

DANGEROUS GAME: Seven-year-old Matfen boy John Stappard had a hand amputated after it became trapped in a cake-crushing machine he and his friends were playing with.

SERVANT'S SUICIDE: Isabella Findlay, 19, a kitchen maid at Hallington Hall near Colwell, drowned herself by jumping into a small burn near the Hall. She was apparently worried about a new cook's job she was due to take on in Dumfriesshire, an inquest heard.