What were the Hexham Courant headlines in Tynedale, Northumberland?

10 years ago

CASH INJECTION: Hexham department store Beales was hauled back from the brink of oblivion by a massive financial bailout. The deal, which ran into a six-figure sum, safeguarded 120 jobs at the store and also staved off another financial meltdown at the former Robbs store, which had been in administration twice in previous years.

CLOSING TIME: One of Hexham's best-known businesses closed unexpectedly. Pattinson's Photography at Battle Hill had been on the market for some time but closed suddenly one weekend in 2014.

TRIBUTES FOR MAG: Tynedale Life, the Hexham Courant's quarterly magazine, was commended in the National Newspaper Awards 2014. It was named among the best regional magazines in the country. 

25 years ago

Mayor of Hexham Cllr Philip Clark (L) with chartered forester Mike Jackson touring the Dukes House woodland site in 1999 (Image: Newsquest)

WOODLAND GIFT: Hexham Town Council unveiled its secret millennium project - a 270-acre wood for the community. A provisional agreement was reached between the town council and its owners Northumberland Estates, gifting the use of the Dukes House woodland to the town.

AIRGUN THUGS: A Prudhoe cat named Laura was almost killed when thugs fired an airgun at its eye and left it for dead. Owner Joanne Dixon was horrified and warned other pet owners to be vigilant.

COUNCIL TAX RISES: Tynedale Council's head of corporate affairs, Peter Kemp, told the March council meeting that stiff increases in council tax should not have come as a surprise to anyone.

WALKER RAN: Thirty members of two-search-and-rescue teams spent nearly six hours searching the countryside at Hadrian's Wall for a missing walker only to find their efforts wasted. It was later concluded by hotel staff and police that the man had 'done a runner' to avoid settling his £67 bill.

50 years ago

MILL TROUBLE: Fourstones paper mill made 23 of its 100-strong workforce redundant. The oil crisis gripping the world at the time was said by mill manager David Spacey to blame as it was making cellulose, needed for the manufacture of wadding for hospitals, hard to come by.

LATER LAST ORDERS: Tynedale's pubs were given the go-ahead to open half an hour later in the summer to accommodate tourists wanting an extra nightcap or two. 

COAL SCHEME: Plans for a 400-acre opencast coal site near Whittonstall were afoot. 

WHISKY GALORE: A lorry en route to a distillery at Roxburgh shed part of its load of empty bottles in Corbridge's Front Street. 

75 years ago

SPARKS FLY: Hexham Rural District Council called on the North-Eastern Electricity Board to come up with a plan for laying on power to those villages and hamlets in Tynedale yet to be connected to the National Grid.

GETTING BIGGER: Plans were being drawn up for the extension of Wark Town Hall.

FATAL FALL: John Elliott, 52, a miller and founding member of the Allendale Wanderers football club, died following an accident at work in which he fell off a wagon while unloading bags of grain.

100 years ago

SILVER SCREEN: The Charlie Chaplin film The Idle Class was showing at Hexham's Queen's Hall cinema.

FARMER MOURNED: Stocksfield dairy farmer William Green died at age 84.

JOB LOSSES: Sixteen workers were laid off at West Mickley Colliery.

125 years ago

FIELD OFFER: Talks were held at Alston Town Hall about the gift of the town's Fairhill field from its then owner, the Lords of the Admiralty, to a board of trustees about to be set up.

150 years ago

MASONS MEET: Alston's masons met at the town's Crown Inn to agree on pay and conditions they would demand from then on. It was resolved that their working hours should be 7am-5pm daily Monday-Friday and 7am-noon on Saturdays, and that they should charge 5s 4d per full day.