10 YEARS AGO

HOME SAFE: FIFTY-FOUR soldiers from 35 Battery of 39 Regiment Royal Artillery, stationed at Albermarle Barracks, were given operational service medals after serving six months in Afghanistan.

ALL CLEAR: Hexham’s MP Peter Atkinson was given the all clear over his House of Commons expenses claim, confirming that he had not been asked to pay back any of the £150,000 he claimed in expenses in 2008.

COURANT CUPID: Irene Hall was eagerly awaiting her marriage to Stan Wright in Australia. The pair had met down under in 1972, after North-East resident Irene spotted Stan reading a copy of the Hexham Courant on a bus.

ON TRACK: Plans to build a new hospital in Haltwhistle remained firmly on track, a health trust leader insisted. Jim Mackey’s comments came after Haltwhistle Town Council’s John Watson said he was concerned funds would run dry before the hospital was built.

25 YEARS AGO

"I’M STUCK": Two-year-old Amy Cousin was playing around on the pool table at her grandparents' pub, the Haydon Hotel at Haydon Bridge, when she ended up somewhat snookered by getting her arm stuck inside one of the pockets.

BATTLING ON: A Prudhoe woman whose son was killed in a road accident on the town’s bypass claimed the road was still unsafe 17 months on.

PIG OUT: Teenager Ross Field got a surprise when he was out walking the family dog through the grounds of Prudhoe Hospital after he ran into a group of wild boar.

GIANT STEP: Hexham’s dream of a new general hospital looked to be getting closer, with the news that experts could soon be looking at the possibility of building on the existing site.

50 YEARS AGO

BLOCK IT: A petition objecting to a proposed Prudhoe bypass was backed by 500 signatories. The anti-bypass campaign’s organisers said they hoped to have doubled the figure by the time they sent the petition to the ministry of transport.

SHOW SHIFTED: The organisers of the annual Tyneside Show at Tynedale Park, Corbridge, decided to switch back to holding it on the first Monday in August, rather than at the spring bank holiday weekend.

SOUR MILK: Hexham Urban Council expressed concern about milk storage conditions in and around the town after a health inspector found that milk stored in a tanker had gone sour.

75 YEARS AGO

SHIP EFFORT: Residents of the Hexham district were told they would have to step up their fund-raising efforts if they wished to meet their goal of replacing the district’s adopted destroyer, HMS Tynedale.

BEST EVER: A Red Cross week held in Bellingham proved to be the village’s best ever, raising £1,306.

MALTA POST: Hexham-born Major General William Robb was appointed General Officer Commanding for Malta.

100 YEARS AGO

WAR MEMORIAL: Tynedale’s first village war memorial, at Wall, was unveiled by Lieutenant Colonel Riddel, of the Northumberland Brigade.

MAN SHOT: An elderly Wylam man was shot in the chest while walking by the river. A second shot missed him altogether. The man, Mr. J. Turnbull, was only slightly injured as the bullet that hit him was first deflected off some garden railings, decreasing its velocity.

SHARE OUT: £80 raised by Heddon-on-the-Wall Soldier’s Comforts Fund was divided between six war widows and two disabled soldiers.

125 YEARS AGO

NEW CLUB: Miners at Mickley set up a workmen’s club, a white brick building on the Stocksfield road.

WHEAT INCREASE: Board of Agriculture figures showed that the amount of wheat, barley, beans and peas grown in Northumberland was on the increase, while the amount of oats and rye grown had fallen.

150 YEARS AGO

POOR POACHER: Thomas Brown, a pitman at Wylam, was brought before Newcastle magistrates for possessing five partridges. He was given a choice between a £3 fine and costs, or six weeks’ imprisonment with hard labour.

LUCKY DAY: Pupils at the Royal Grammar School in Hexham were given a “whole holiday” on account of their late schoolfellow, Mr W. Gibson, having been elected a Fellow of Queen’s College, Cambridge.

SILVER GIFT: Mr N. Hedley, station master at Falstone, was presented with a handsome silver tea service and silver watch guard from the people of Knowes Gate, his previous station, to thank him for his courteous manner in which he performed his duties.

MADLY IN LOVE: A man was described as remaining “stark mad all day” after a woman spurned his advances. Such was John Walker’s conduct after the rejection, the police had to be called.