10 YEARS AGO

CHALET FEARS: Owners of Overdene chalet park in Ovington said it was only a matter of time before someone was killed there, with the properties plagued by arsonists and thieves for two years.

HARDEST HIT: Councillors said the people of Tynedale would be hardest hits by the harsh economies proposed by the new Northumberland County Council.

JOBS JOY: Frozen food chain Iceland confirmed that they had purchased Hexham’s Woolworths premises, with up to 50 new jobs being created by the news.

FLOOD CHAOS: Residents and motorists in the North Tyne were stranded as heavy rainfall caused havoc to the area’s rivers.

25 YEARS AGO

BORED YOUNGSTERS: A councillor slammed a massive addition of £10,000 to Hexham Town Council’s budget, which would be going towards the Hexham youth initiative. However, others hailed it as an investment in the future.

NEW HOMES: One of the biggest private housing schemes since the war was being planned for Prudhoe, in a £20m scheme that would see 500 new homes for the town.

FIRE THREATS: Meetings were to be held behind closed doors to decide whether the “axe” should still be held over Haydon Bridge Fire Station and the day-manning of Hexham Fire Station.

LIBRARY CUTS: A suggested spread of £480,000 worth of cuts in the country’s library service for 1994/5 was proposed by a Northumberland County Council committee.

50 YEARS AGO

BUS BONUS: Hexham Rural Council was to offer a £100 subsidy over six months, in a bid to save the twice-weekly Hexham to Blanchland service.

HIP JOB: Haltwhistle girl Angela Barnes (23) returned to her job at the Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco. “She had a look at the hippies, but she didn’t get too close,” said her sister, Lyn.

NO SPARES: Back-to back fireplaces in Bellingham council houses were obsolete and impossible to find spare parts for, a surveyor told the parish council.

75 YEARS AGO

WAR TREK: Fusilier William Jasper Carruthers (33) of Langley, was back in England after escaping from an Italian prison camp and trekking 200 miles to rejoin Allied lines.

JOURNALIST KILLED: Courant reporter Sergeant Harry Barton Annan (22) a pilot in the RAF, was presumed to have been killed on flying duties.

DIM VIEW: Hexham Police announced a “round up” of all cyclists found riding without lights.

100 YEARS AGO

WAVED GOODBYE: The Rector of Bellingham resigned to resume his previous job of training young officers for sea service at the Nautical College, Pangbourne.

KNUCKLE DOWN: A Dipton man was bound over for two years for attacking an old adversary with a knuckleduster. It paralleled a similar case a year earlier.

POW DIES: A Territorial Army soldier who had lived through some of the major battles of the First World War had been accidentally killed as a prisoner of war, his mother was told.

125 YEARS AGO

SLED SLIP: A 10-year-old girl broke her leg when she fell off a toboggan careering down the Sele hill in Hexham with friends.

WHITE HUNTER Corbridge’s Alfred H. Straker left for a sporting expedition in Somaliland, hoping to be the first European to enter the Galla country.

BREAKER, BREAKER: After severe weather had thrown many able-bodied men out of work, a meeting at Hexham Workhouse suggested employing some of them for stone-breaking.

CRIME CONCERN: Crime in Newcastle was causing concern for a Corbridge mother, after her 15-year-old son disappeared without a trace. Charles Armstrong, of the Blue Bell Inn, went missing on the way to stay with his aunt for the New Year. As he was carrying a silver watch and chain, foul play was suspected.

150 YEARS AGO

LUCKY ESCAPE: Bellingham postman Mr Maughn, who drove the mail gig between Hexham and Bellingham, had a narrow escape when the gig was upset on the road near Acomb by a stone placed there by “some mischievous person.”

RATE COLLECTION: At a meeting of the Hexham Local Board of Health, surveyor Mr Brownrigg was asked to make a rapid collection of the rates, as March 25 was approaching the books needed to be balanced.

RAILWAY INCIDENT: A Mr Perry, who was injured in a recent accident on the Hexham and Allendale railway, was said to be progressing favourably towards recovery. An investigation was due to take place.

VAGRANCY ARREST: A tramp, named Thomas Walsh, was arrested in Bellingham and charged with vagrancy. He was sentenced to a month in the House of Correction with hard labour.