10 YEARS AGO

SPEEDY ARRIVAL: Little Harris Nye took his parents by surprise when he arrived at superfast speed – rather than the hospital birth Mum Debbie had carefully planned, he arrived in the bathroom of their Bardon Mill home.

FINAL SENTENCE: After 20 years on the benches at Tynedale Magistrates, Charles Enderby retired as a Justice of the Peace at the age of 70. Charles also hung up his £6,000 Tudor uniform and retired as a member of the Queen’s ceremonial bodyguard.

TYCOON BACKING: Multi-millionaire businessman Graham Wylie, formerly of Sage computer software, gave his backing to Tynedale’s first community-run shop in Humshaugh.

DUKE DONE: The Duke of Northumberland’s £30 million plans to revamp Prudhoe town centre were under threat, after the Co-operative group pursued a judicial review of the controversial decision to pass the scheme.

25 YEARS AGO

SUPERSTORE PLANS: London-based Centros Properties unveiled a scheme to build a 50,000 square foot store for as-then unnamed supermarket chain on the Station Road site then occupied by Matthew Charlton’s, Carr’s Garage, and the railway goods yard.

CONTRACT WARS: For the first time since the government introduced compulsory tendering, Tynedale Council lost out on a major contract. The authority was beaten in a street-cleaning contract by a London firm, sparking a political row.

LUCKY LORRY: A lorry was involved with a collision with a van before crashing into the front of an Acomb house. Only luck averted tragedy - homeowner Mrs Margaret Nixon was in the bathroom at the time.

STOP HERE: Villagers at Gilsland were going full steam ahead with a campaign to have the village’s railway station reopened – 27 years after it closed.

50 YEARS AGO

UNDER FIRE: Northumberland County Council came under fire for allowing night lasses being held in the Hexham district to be advertised only in Newcastle newspapers. The decision led to a sharp fall in interest in the various classes – almost half of the 55 classes had to be cancelled because of poor enrolment figures, for which a lack of advertising was blamed.

DERAILED: A British rail spokesman told Stocksfield Institute Community Association that the company could not afford to have the village railway station’s platform heightened or its toilets kept open.

ROUTE WORRIES: Hexham Urban Council was warned that Rochester and Marshall’s Hexham-Morpeth bus service looked likely to be axed.

75 YEARS AGO

NO CHANGE: Hexham Urban Council stood by its decision to continue banking with Lloyd’s in the face of criticism from the district’s trades council, which claimed that local rates could be cut by £150 a year if the council switched its custom to the Co-operative Bank.

WELCOME HOME: Stocksfield residents agreed to press ahead with plans to build a £6,000 public hall as a way of welcoming home local people serving in the Armed forces.

CRUTCH PADDING: Hexham Group Hospital Supply Depot appealed for volunteers willing to help put padding on crutches.

75 YEARS AGO

FARMER’S FINE: An Allendale farmer was fined 20 shillings at Hexham Petty Sessions for failing to have his sheep dipped by the end of August.

RAT HUNT: Hexham Urban Council was urged by one of its members to encourage residents of the district to kill rats, as part of a county-wide campaign, by offering a penny or three halfpence for each rodent destroyed.

SUNDAY POST: A survey conducted in Hexham found that 258 of the 288 people who took part were in favour of postal deliveries on Sundays.

100 YEARS AGO

CLUB OPENED: Mickley Workmen’s Club and Reading Room was opened to the public for the first time.

150 YEARS AGO

FAKE NEWS: The Tuesday edition of the Courant reported that a Hexham divorce case was to be heard before judge Sir James Wilde in November. The wife was praying for a judicial separation on the grounds of her husbands adultery with her sister. However, in the Saturday edition, a correspondent wrote: “For the credit of our ancient town, I may say that no such case is pending, and that it only exists in the imagination of the correspondent to the North of England Advertiser.”

CONTINUED DISPUTE: There were rumours that another phase would soon begin in the dispute between the Countess of Derwentwater and the Greenwich Hospital Commission. The Countess had made a claim to Dilston cottage and the adjoining land. Her agent was engaged in “more than usually exciting” proceedings.