10 YEARS AGO

UNDER FIRE: Angry parents denounced the management of Allendale Middle School and the county council for letting it rot, during a heated meeting after Ofsted rated several aspects of the leadership as “exceptionally low” and “inadequate”.

CHARITY VETERAN: 93-year-old Joyce Routledge, of Corbridge, had no plans to stop working in the Hexham branch of Save the Children, despite being three years older than the charity itself.

SORDID SHELTER: Residents raised concerns over plans for a new teen shelter in Haydon Bridge, with claims that it would only provide another place for youths to “drink alcohol and have sex”.

SKATES ON: Just days before Tynedale Council ceased to exist, officials thrashed out a deal with landowner Charles Beaumont to ensure Corbridge’s youngsters would get their skatepark that summer.

25 YEARS AGO

BOGGED DOWN: Residents of Leaside Estate in Halton-Lea-Gate said that drainage problems had left them with waterlogged gardens and raw sewage, making their lives a misery.

TOURIST MAGNET: Wanney Crags near Kirkwhelpington was to become a tourist attraction “to rival Mount Rushmore” after sculptors finished three years of work fashioning a likeness of the popular former local councillor Sean Foley from the solid rock. With a date of March 31, this was an early April Fools joke!

BAD PLAN: Tynedale Council was on a collision course with Northumberland County Council over the new County Structure Plan – the planning blueprint designed to take Northumberland into the 21st century.

50 YEARS AGO:

CHECKED OUT: Hexham Police got a new look when their traditional headgear was replaced by black and white checked hats.

BLAME TV: After an attempted break-in at Prudhoe, the culprit told police he had been trying to imitate something on television, a court was told.

SAFETY FIRST: “Will Hexham get a Tufty Club?” it was asked in an article on school road safety classes run by Woman Police Constable Heather Dodds, of Acomb. Tufty was a red squirrel mascot used by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) between the 1950s and 1990s.

75 YEARS AGO

UNEQUAL RIGHTS: Hexham Youth Club members gave an emphatic “No” to the question of Germany having equal rights with other nations in the post-war years.

CLEAN RECORD: Only one article in 6,000 was lost by a modern laundry, Coun. F. H Chaffey – a laundry proprietor – told Hexham Rotarians.

HEN PARTY: A bride in Haltwhistle shared a taxi with her brother and ten allegedly stolen hens, a committal hearing was told.

100 YEARS AGO

COY LAWYER: When a Stocksfield woman appeared in court accused of stealing £39 from her husband, the prosecutor withdrew the case rather than go into the “extremely painful” facts.

POLL AXED: Allendale Parish Council asked for better polling facilities following complaints that there were only two polling booths in 50 square miles.

PHOTO FINISH: The Gem cinema in Hexham was showing a “picturisation” of the Grand National, recorded on 20 cameras.

WATCH OUT: Five gallant soldiers gathered at the Gem Picture Hall in Hexham to be presented with gold watches from the town’s Home-on-Leave fund. To add to the patriotic flavour of the event, the management showed stirring footage of the 4th Northumberland Fusiliers on their route march from Newcastle to Hexham, via Prudhoe.

125 YEARS AGO

CASH STORM: Efforts to divert money from the Shaftoe Charity from Haydon Bridge to Hexham met with a petition to the county council from villagers.

GONE BUST: Miners at the Stonecroft and Greyside leadmines in Newbrough stopped work for good when the money to pay them ran out.

CORNEY TALK: A clever monologue entertainment was given “in the style of Mr Corney Grain” at Hexham.

150 YEARS AGO

VAGABOND GANG: The Courant claimed “for the past six months the outskirts of this county has been infested with a gang of vagabonds, living no person knew how.” Police from Haltwhistle and Slaggyford arrested two of the worst offenders, who were sentenced to Hexham House of Correction for 14 days imprisonment with hard labour.

FARMERS BALL: A large and fashionable ball was held for the families of several farmers at the Swinburn Arms Inn in Stamfordham.

BONE BREAK: William Walker, of Haydon Bridge, broke his thigh bone in two places after his foot was caught in a hole whilst running through a field. The services of Mr Walton, a bone setter from Catton, were called upon.