10 YEARS AGO

CARE CUTS: All four of Tynedale’s day care centres for the elderly – in Hexham, Haltwhistle, Prudhoe, and Ponteland – were recommended for closure, despite the plans being roundly condemned during a public consultation.

SHOOTING SHOCK: Ponteland residents were left “shocked and horrified” after an unnamed businessman was shot in the leg in the early hours of the morning in the exclusive Darras Hall.

RANGER RESCUE: Northumbrian Water ranger Neil Welton clambered into the notorious Kielder Water spillway to rescue a Staffordshire bull terrier which had run away from its owners. Neil carried the dog to safety on his back up a ladder.

MONSTER MINE: The threat of opencast mining came back to haunt residents of Whittonstall 30 years after plans were rejected, with villagers preparing themselves for another battle with UK Coal.

25 YEARS AGO

TRUE GRIT: There were concerns that gritting cutbacks could hit Tynedale, after precautionary salting of an ambulance route to Hexham General Hospital and a steep access road to Hexham East First School were axed from Northumberland County Council’s gritting programme.

BAA BAN: Northern farmers appealed to Hexham MP Peter Atkinson to raise, at the highest level, their concern over Channel ferries banning the carriage of live sheep – which they said threatened their livelihood.

WEDDING WOES: High winds over the bank holiday weekend wrought havoc in Ordley Village, Hexhamshire, where a large marquee, erected for a wedding reception, was blown away, bringing down fences and an electricity power cable.

WHAT’S THAT?: Bellingham man Peter Nelson claimed to have seen a UFO hovering over the golf course, after all the alarms went off in his house. Mr Nelson said he saw a strange, shiny object glowing in the sky.

50 YEARS AGO

DAMN DRAINS: Hexham’s brand new £248,000 sewage works were inadequate for the amount of effluent produced by the town, a councillor claimed. Coun. Sam Wright, chairman of the urban council’s works committee, insisted that the works would have to be extended.

75 YEARS AGO

FAREWELL GIFT: Parishioners of Hexham Abbey presented the rector, Canon Farquhar, with a cheque for £181 when he left for a post in the South. He had been rector for 25 years.

HARDY PERENNIAL: The Prudhoe Flower Show was revived after an absence of some years. More than 7,000 people attended, and the gate receipts of £427 were put towards establishing the show on a firm footing.

LIGHT BILL: The people of Hexham faced a £3,000 bill for street lighting – even though they hadn’t had any lights since the start of the war. A statement on relaxing the blackout conditions in the North was expected, but most people in the town agreed that retaining the blackout was worthwhile as long as it wouldn’t last much longer.

100 YEARS AGO

CO-OPERATIVE EFFORT: The management board of the Prudhoe Co-operative society was said to be astonished at the success of its new branch in Wylam, which attracted more than 300 members in a few months.

FOOTBALL FOCUS: The Hexham branch of the Comrades of the Great War met at Hexham Drill Hall to complete arrangements to start running a football team.

THE GEM: Hexham residents were excited at the prospect of a boxing fight between Jimmy Wilde and Pat Moore in London, which was to be screened in the town.

125 YEARS AGO

CATCHING ON: The Hexham Angling Association held its first ever competition, a fly-casting contest, at Tyne Green. Mr Thomas Dunn, of Hexham, won two of the three events, and was awarded a silver medal.

TWENTY PUBS: Licences were granted for 20 public houses and one wine house in the Haltwhistle area, but a licence for the Three Horse Shoes Inn at Melkridge was suspended because of insanitary conditions.

150 YEARS AGO

FRUITFUL TREE: A man in Shotley Bridge claimed he pulled a grand total of 32,000 pears off a single pear tree.

POOR LAMB: A farmer observed that some water, which was dammed to drive a wheel, was coming through much slower than usual. It turned out that a long lost lamb had got stuck in the drains, and was found just before it drowned. The animal was tended to, and seemed little worse for wear despite the fact it had been lost for 17 days.

HEAVY NIGHT: A group of prisoners charged with drunk and disorderly in Hexham appeared before J. G. Riddell, Esq of Hexham, and were committed to Morpeth Gaol for three months due to a lack of good behaviour.