10 YEARS AGO

AT LAST: It was the moment that Haydon Bridge had been waiting for – after 70 years, ecstatic villagers gathered to see junior transport minister Paul Clark cut the ribbon to open the £33m A69 bypass.

WALK OUT: Police were called after students at Hexham’s Queen Elizabeth High School staged a protest of new headteacher Neil Morrison’s clamp down on school uniform.

FINAL TIME: The final meeting of Tynedale Council had a sting in the tail, as chairman Coun. Janet Somerville of Kirkwhelpington, chose the occasion to bitterly lament the demise of the council.

NEIGH WAY: Police were appealing for information after a painting of a black horse worth £900 was stolen from a Corbridge art gallery.

25 YEARS AGO

SHOCK ROW: A simmering row between Tynedale Council’s planning committee chairman and officers erupted into open warfare, when Coun. Jim Brownbridge of Bellingham launched a scathing attack on conservation officer Bill McIntrye.

WIND WOES: Villagers in Rochester were frightened to leave their homes in windy weather, because of the danger of being hit by materials falling from a derelict house.

RUN DOWN: The run-down of Hexham War Memorial Hospital started, with the hospital set to lose a large number of consultant beds the following week.

TREE PLEA: A plea for help from an American woman desperately trying to follow up her family tree ended up in Ridley Mill, near Stocksfield.

50 YEARS AGO

TRAVEL TIME: Attending meetings of Prudhoe Urban Council meant a 300-mile round trip for Coun. Peter Knox after he moved to Mansfield. The Labour councillor, an area representative for an oil firm, intended to hold on to his seat until the following year’s elections, despite the three-hour journey to Prudhoe.

RADIO DAYS: Retiring as the engineer in charge of the BBC Stagshaw transmitter, Corbridge’s Mr Ivor Dinning, was given a complimentary dinner and presented with...a transmitter radio.

SHOCKING THEFT: Police said thieves who cut through the main cable at Settlingstones mine to steal wire and electrical cable could have been electrocuted. Instead they were scared away by warning lights.

75 YEARS AGO

MINE HOSTS: Haltwhistle Rural Council was approached for help in finding lodgings for “Bevin Boys” – National Service recruits sent down the pits – but said few collieries in the area would need them.

BLESS YOU: With an altar erected in a bay window, the Bishop of Newcastle held a confirmation at the Children’s Sanatorium at Hexham Hydro. Two of the nine girl candidates were confirmed in their beds.

DRUNK DISGRACE: A 20-year-old soldier had admitted squandering money on drink, card games, and the dog track after stealing £150 from the Tynedale Hotel in Corbridge, a committal hearing was told.

100 YEARS AGO

STICKY SITUATION: At the Whinestone Quarry near Barrasford, a fire in the tar boiler took hold of other buildings before it was extinguished by Hexham Fire Brigade.

RAIL CRUSH: An inquest recorded a verdict of accidental death on a railway guard crushed by a train at Haydon Bridge.

MEDALIST HONOURED: Pte. David Foster of the 4th Northumberland Fusiliers received a handsome testimonial from his colleagues at Tynedale Colliery for his gallantry in the field which won him a military medal.

HOUSING QUESTION: There was concern that government orders for building materials to build new houses meant private contractors in the area couldn’t get any supplies.

125 YEARS AGO

ON YER BIKES: Cyclists from all over Tynedale gathered in Hexham to celebrate the opening of the cycling season.

IT’S A MYSTERY: An open verdict was recorded on a failed businessman from Alston, found dead in the Tyne with just a penny in his pockets.

150 YEARS AGO

PROLIFIC EWE: Mr T. Barron of Hexham had a Leicester Ewe which dropped the unusual number of four lambs, pure Leicesters, and, equally unusual, all four were tups.

HAIR TODAY: A woman attempted to enter Newcastle Infirmary to visit a patient, when the head porter noticed a cork sticking out the side of her chignon. It turned out to be a phial of whiskey “of pretty large dimensions” hidden within the woman’s hair.

OVERSEER ELECTION: A meeting of the “rated inhabitants” of Hexham was held in the vestry rooms of the abbey to elect overseers of the poor and a select vestry for the coming year.

KICKING OFF: A child was killed in Allendale when a horse kicked him in the head.