Hexham Courant's headline news in Hexham, Tynedale 150 years ago

10 years ago

COURT RESTORED: Crime victims, families, legal professionals and defendants were facing inconvenient trips to Newcastle since the closure of the Hexham court in April 2011. Ongoing issues meant more Tynedale cases were being moved further afield to North Tyneside Magistrates' Court in North Shields.

STUNT APOLOGY: Homebase in Hexham apologised after being accused of bully-boy tactics in advertising its new store in town. A van promoting the company's newly opened DIY and gardening superstore was provocatively parked in the car park of rival garden centre Down to Earth on Easter Sunday.

MOTOCROSS THREAT: Rogue bikers who had been ripping up the mountain bike trails near Kielder Reservoir on their high-powered machines faced the threat of having their bikes being impounded and fed into a crusher.

25 years ago

ESTATE POLICEMAN: Residents in Prudhoe's Oaklands Estate and West Wylam were to get their own community police officer as part of a £2m regeneration plan for the area.

BIN COLLECTION ABANDONED: A public meeting in Ponteland had to be abandoned after hundreds of residents turned out to vent their anger at a proposed reduction in bin collections. 

Paul Robbie and Michelle Brown in 1999 (Image: NQ)

PROPOSAL: Paul Robbie proposed to girlfriend Michelle Brown in front of millions of people on the last ever broadcast of Noel's House Party TV show. Michelle found herself in the spotlight before Paul appeared with a bouquet of flowers and asked her to marry him as millions of viewers looked on.

TAX FIGHT: Tynedale truckers joined forces to oppose unfair taxes and threatened to block roads in the region in protest. Hexham haulier Wayne Smith called on truckers to join a local self-help group Trans-action North-East which he was helping to set up with other drivers. 

50 years ago

ACTION PLAN: Bellingham Parish Council launched a five-year action plan intended to improve the image and appearance of the North Tyne Valley.

CINEMA TO SHUT: Rumours were afoot that Hexham's Forum Cinema, which opened in 1937, was to close, which it did seven months later. It reopened several years later in 1982.

VILLAGER DIES: Former farmer Harry Armstrong, until then the oldest resident of Garrigill, near Alston, died aged 88.  

75 years ago

UP IN FLAMES: A barn at Anick Grange near Hexham was gutted by fire.

YOUTH DISCIPLINE: It was suggested at a Hexham Urban District Council meeting that an 'official spanker' be appointed to discipline catapult-toting youths responsible for repeatedly damaging the town's electric lightbulbs.

MARCHING ORDERS: Allendale Cricket Club was reported to be facing closure after being told it would have to vacate its Shilburnhaugh playing field at the end of the 1949 season.

100 years ago

DONE OUT: Edmundbyers' Wesleyan Chapel reopened after being closed for refurbishment. 

125 years ago

FIRST-CLASS POST: A revamped postal service was introduced in the West Allen Valley, as part of which letters were to be delivered to the doors of houses at Cold Cleugh and mail was to go to Mohope daily.

WHEELS ON FIRE: Fire broke out at E.H Leake's bicycle repair shop in Haltwhistle, causing £150 worth of damage. The blaze was reportedly caused by a lamp being knocked over.

150 years ago

DEATH: The wife of a servant at Bellister Castle, near Haltwhistle, committed suicide.