10 years ago

Bowled Over: A £600,000 tenpin bowling alley was planned for Hexham’s Wentworth Leisure Centre. However, members of Tynedale Indoor Bowls Club expressed their outrage at the plans as the established indoor bowls hall would have to make way for the new bowling alley.

Stranded: A National Trust warden from Corbridge was among five of the charity’s employees trapped on an island in the Farne Islands due to Force 10 gales. David Steel was among the group coping with dwindling water and food rations whilst stranded on the barren, windswept island of Brownsman.

Council Cuts: Northumberland County Council was set to impose the most savage cuts to services in living memory in Tynedale. The council was set to lay waste to just about every service in the district, to help plug a £30m hole in its finances. The elderly were once again in the front line as the council proposed cuts to residential care facilities throughout the county.

Wall Wonders: Hadrian’s Wall visitors enjoyed an illuminating experience when the entire 84-mile length of the landmark was lit up for one night only. The plan saw 500 individual gas lights erected along the wall.

25 years ago

Drug Revelation: One in 10 of Tynedale’s young teenagers had tried cannabis and one in 12 had experimented with LSD, figures revealed. The data emerged in the firstever county-wide mass survey on the health and behaviour of young people.

Funding Denied: A blistering row broke out at a Tynedale Council meeting when members accused a conservation charity of carrying out a “character assassination” on a councillor. A North Pennines Heritage Trust memorandum singled out Coun. Colin Horncastle, of Allendale, for particular criticism, after it had been recommended by the council’s grant aid sub-committee that the trust should not receive any grant for its work in the area.

Crime Catcher: A Haydon Bridge man, who tailed a couple of thieves who had stolen his trailer, was able to give police a running commentary on their progress via his mobile phone. Police officers stopped the twin brothers at Hexham when both were charged with theft and motoring offences, Tynedale Magistrates heard.

Family man: A Bardon Mill man played a major part in helping poverty-stricken Romanian families to stay together. Former director of social services, Alan Gorst, set up small residencies for children and ran training and research projects with the local authority in Brasov.

50 years ago

Pool Demand: A survey of youth workers in Hexham found that, in their opinion, the facility most needed by the town’s young people was a swimming pool. A coffee bar was second on the youth workers’ wanted list.

Bypass Consultation: Prudhoe residents were invited to give their views on plans to build a bypass road around the town centre.

Meeting Adjourned: A Prudhoe Urban Council meeting was adjourned after a member, Coun. S. Ralph, refused to be quiet or to leave the meeting by its chairman.

75 years ago

Farewell parade: The Northumberland Home Guard’s fourth battalion held its farewell parade in Hexham.

Lightning strikes: Three cows and a horse were killed by lightning when a severe storm passed over the Hexham district.

War trials: Capt E.S. Hurst, a former headmaster of Hexham’s Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, was on the Bench of the first British military court in Germany to try German civilians.

100 years ago

Retail Rumours: The Hexham Courant reported that there were rumours that “branches of two of the best-known multiple-shop businesses in the country” were soon to be opened in Fore Street, Hexham. The article added: “There have been rumours of this kind before, but this time there seems to be something in it.”

Fund total: The Hexham and District War Memorial Fund passed the £9,000 mark.

125 years ago

Mammoth mushroom: A son of the Prudhoe general dealer John Lee found a mushroom measuring five inches in diameter in a field near the town.

Fireworks fine: Three Haltwhistle boys were fined two shillings and sixpence each for letting off fireworks in the street.

150 years ago

Village Mourning: The whole neighbourhood of Langley was thrown into a state of deep gloom after a suicide was reported at the Bounderlands, near Haydon Bridge. The jury at the inquest into the death returned a verdict of temporary insanity.

Insane Arrest: A man was arrested in Corbridge after assaulting a police officer. The Courant reported that the man was spotted swinging a large hammer around, and threatening to fell those who came near.