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TOWN DIVIDED: Residents in Haltwhistle who received Border Television were set to lose their analogue channels - but those receiving Tyne Tees would continue with analogue services until 2012.

PHONING IN: County planners were left to face to wrath of parents, after their failure to say “no” to a phone mast outside Darras Hall Primary School in time saw the mast built anyway.

BIN IT: Only a third of households in Tynedale had stumped up the £20 demanded by Northumberland County Council to keep their brown garden waste recycling bins.

BLOODY BIKER: A cyclist had to be airlifted to hospital after his leg was impaled on the brake lever of his bike during a fall at Kielder.

25 YEARS AGO

GROUP PRESSURE: An action group was formed to oppose Bellway Home’s bid to build 500 new homes on the south-western edge of Hexham.

REWARD OFFERED: Businesses in Hexham were offering a substantial reward for information leading to the arrest of a thief who mowed down a pensioner when he tried to stop him from stealing his car.

BABY SHOWER: A Hexham bakery was forced to advertise for new staff, after six staff members fell pregnant over the previous year.

QUARRY QUEUES: A proposed new quarry road taking heavy lorries away from Barrasford village would have a devastating effect on Barrasford Park caravan site, which would share a junction with the road under the proposals.

50 YEARS AGO

BLOCKED MEETING: Hexham Urban Council had an extraordinary meeting behind closed doors to probe the inadequacy of the £248,000 Anick sewage works.

ALL SHIPSHAPE: Prudhoe Golf Club officially opened its new £20,000 clubhouse, whose chairs were identical to those on the QE2.

GIMME SHELTER: A freak thunderstorm and cloudburst caused flood damage in dozens of Stocksfield homes - and drove a Scout fete indoors at Broomley.

75 YEARS AGO

D-DAY WARNINGS: Commons speaker and MP for Hexham, Colonel D. Clifton Brown, warned that the Allied advance since D-Day did not mean a “cake walk” from Cherbourg to Berlin. He added: “It may be a long time before we can establish a bridgehead from which we could safely advance.

SAD EVENT: Hexham’s “Salute the Soldier” campaign;s opening ceremony was marred by tragedy when a 60-year-old member of the Royal British Legion collapsed and died of a heart attack.

BAD LAD: An 11-year-old Prudhoe boy, said to have stolen two bicycles and broken into a house within a three-day period, was committed to an approved school.

SINGLE FIGURES: Hexham golfers were warned that unless more money was forthcoming, play on te Spital Parks course in post-war years would be restricted to nine holes.

100 YEARS AGO

BUFFALOISM SPREAD: With the founding of the Haydon Lodge of the RAOB - the Buffalos - the principles of the Order were being spread westward, it was claimed.

STEAMING AHEAD: Haltwhistle Parish Council asked the Railway Company to restore the 8:15am service from Newcastle and extend the west-bound 8:50pm service beyond Hexham.

NO THANKS: Glasgow politician Sir George Trevelyan turned down a request from the Hexham Division Liberal Association to stand for election as the area’s next MP.

125 YEARS AGO

THE DESCENSION: A painter working on the interior of Humshaugh Church plunged 16 feet into the pews when the scaffolding collapsed.

TOUGH PUNISHMENT: A 25-year-old inmate at Hexham Union Workhouse was sentenced to seven days’ hard labour for attacking the workhouse master.

150 YEARS AGO

MINOR KILLED: An inquest was held at the West Wylam Inn into the death of Joseph Parker, a 13-year-old miner at Prudhoe colliery. The inquest heard that Parker was hit by a set of tubs, and the coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.

HAY YOU: There was concern that the weather would led to a particularly poor hay harvest - the Courant reported: “The hay crop in most places will be exceedingly poor, and we seldom remember seeing the outlying districts present such an unsatisfactory appearance.”

SNOW JOKE: Snow fell on the Cheviot Hills. It had been many years sice snow fell so thickly in June as it did that week.

TWO TIMING: A miner was committed for trial for bigamy. Both his wives were in court, and were described as : “one being a poorly dressed, poverty stricken woman, while number two was a younger person by some years, dressed in a stylish manner.”