10 YEARS AGO

PUBLIC OUTCRY: Hexham MP Peter Atkinson claimed he had “nothing to hide” despite a report from MP watchdog website theyworkforyou.com claiming he had made an expenses claim of £150,370.

APPALLING RESPONSE: Poor emergency response times in the North Tyne and Redesdale led to renewed calls for the reinstatement of Bellingham’s ambulance.

HOSPITAL CHANGES: Proposals for a £200 million overhaul of the region’s healthcare system, including a controversial £75 emergency hospital in Cramlington, went public.

PROTEST FAILS: Proposed changes to the uniform at Hexham’s Queen Elizabeth High School, which sparked open rebellion earlier in the year, were confirmed in a letter to parents.

25 YEARS AGO

CUT-PRICE: Three years after going bust with debts of around £27m, the Slaley Hall Golf and Country Club was put on the market for a cut-price of £4m.

TYNEDALE FIRST: The district’s first woman priest, Rev. Audrey Elkington of St Mary Magdalene Church in Prudhoe, was ordained.

ARCHITECT SNUB: Prudhoe Town Council snubbed the architects of a nursing home, planned for front street, by turning down the offer of a private meeting with them.

PLANNING PROBLEMS: An Allendale man claimed victory for “the common man” after it was ruled he did not have to demolish his summerhouse, as ordered to do by council planners as he didn’t need planning permission in the first place.

50 YEARS AGO

BLESS YOU: Plans for the £10 million Kimberly-Clark tissue factory, on 53 acres of the former ICI site at Prudhoe, were announced.

CLASSY LADIES: Members of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs might be middle-class, but they should not be mediocre, a pioneer of the movement told the Hexham club’s 24th birthday party.

NESTING INSTINCT: A pair of birds built their nest inside a lamp standard in Ponteland, in a hole knocked in by vandals.

75 YEARS AGO

QUIET PERSUASION: A Hexham miner who owed £9 in fines, when asked what payment he was prepared to make, told magistrates: “Nowt”. He changed his mind after a word with the probation officer.

HAND DELIVERED: Hexham’s head postmaster, Mr A. Bain, was given a cheque when he retired after nearly 50 years of service.

STIRRING WORDS: Viscount Allendale, Zoe Commander of the Home Guard, told the local battalion to “keep on” when he presented them with awards on their fourth anniversary.

100 YEARS AGO

VEIN HOPES: It was rumoured that a big lead vein had been discovered in the Sipton district of Allendale, raising hopes of a return to the boom years 50 years earlier.

DEER ME: A Corbridge vet was charged by a deer as he travelled from Healey to Riding Mill on his motorbike.

BIG CHEESE: A practical cheesemaking course in Wark resulted in 134 gallons of milk being turned into various cheeses.

125 YEARS AGO

SHARED OUT: Bidding was brisk when more than 150 shares in the Hexham Gas Company went on sale at the town’s Royal Hotel.

SCHOOL DEMAND: Following the Free Education Act, people in Ovingham collected a petition to demand that poorer children in the village should be schooled for nothing.

STILL TIME: Correspondent “Bobby Dazler” wrote to the Hexham Courant from Haydon Bridge about “wor church clock - it’s on strike, or rather it disn’t strike, ‘n hes’nt strucken since new year”.

SUGAR TAX: How much sugar should an old woman have in her tea? That question was the one that taxed the minds of the Hexham Board of Guardians. It seemed that a clerical error had given the aged workhouse inmates a pound of sugar for every ounce of tea. When one member said that this was too much, others pointed out that some old women had three or four spoonfuls per cup.

150 YEARS AGO

KICKING OFF: A boy named Baty was kicked in the head by a stallion in the George and Dragon yard while putting a parcel into a carrier’s cart. He was conveyed home insensible and remained in a precarious state.

HIRING DAY: The annual hiring for agricultural single servants was held at Hexham, with numerous masters and servants attending. Mr William Fortune was charged with gambling in the market place and was sentenced to a month in prison with hard labour.

CHINA TOWN: A large consignment of china, earthen-ware, and Parian marble arrived in Hexham town hall for sale. The goods came from a large manufacturer in Staffordshire, and were sent to Hexham due to a depression of trade in the industry.