10 YEARS AGO

CASH FIRST: Bus operator Go North East was accused of putting money before morals in a shake-up of services in Tynedale, with furious residents and councillors insisting sections of Prudhoe and Hexham would be isolated.

SINKING FEELING: Haltwhistle swimming and leisure centre was struggling to stay afloat after racking up heavy losses. Haltwhistle Town Council was told that the facility was £14,600 in the red since the start of the financial year.

HORSE BACK: Hexham horse rider Karen Shotton romped to victory in a 100-mile endurance ride over some of the toughest terrain in Britain - blissfully unaware she was suffering from a broken back that could have left the 50-year-old England international paralysed.

KNOCKED DOWN: A planning application was submitted to raze the two buildings which formed part of the old Hexham workhouse complex on the Corbridge Road, opposed by Hexham Civic Society.

25 YEARS AGO

MUM'S WARNING: A three-year-old toddler was rushed to hospital after chemicals from a luminous toy squirted into his face. Liam Mckenna's Mum, Emma, had bought him the toy at Hexham Bonfire Night.

CHEAP COFFINS: Hexham Town Council was doing its bit to keep down the cost of dying - by providing cardboard coffins for cut-price funerals in the town's cemetery.

LONG SERVICE: Haltwhistle Swimming and Leisure centre waved goodbye to veteran volunteer helper Mrs Jessie Robinson. Mrs Robinson had helped out at the pool for 18 years, but was calling it quits at the age of 84.

MISSING LINK: Archaeologists were close to bridging the gap between the Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods following the discovery of an Anglo-Saxon watermill amongst the remnants of the old Roman Bridge at Corbridge.

50 YEARS AGO:

PEDESTRIAN SCHEME: Plans to covert Hexham's Fore Street into a pedestrian way were given the thumbs-up by Hexham Urban Council.

ROAD RUMPUS: The Prudhoe Action Committee dismissed plans to build an inner relief road in the town as a waste of money.

POOL PLANS: A £196,000 scheme for the construction of a swimming pool in Hexham was submitted to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government after being approved, by a five-to-four majority, by Hexham Urban Council members.

75 YEARS AGO

RESERVOIR PLANS: Hexham Urban Council had plans drawn up for the creation of a service reservoir at Ladle Wells in Hexhamshire.

PRISON PAIR: A couple from Castle View in Prudhoe were sent to jail for neglecting their three children. A court heard that the children were dirty, undernourished, and infested with scabies.

POW ROW: The allocation of first-class train seats to German prisoners of war sparked a row among members of Hexham Urban Council. It was agreed that the council make a complaint to the Ministry of War Transport.

100 YEARS AGO

FEVER OUTBREAK: Scarlet fever was reported to be rife in Tynedale. A meeting of Hexham Rual Council heard that 14 cases had been notified in its district during the previous four weeks, six of them at Acomb.

TEETOTAL THREAT: Following the withdrawal of the Allenheads Inn's liquor license, a Hexham Courant columnist predicted - wrongly, as things transpired - thatthere would be no pubs left in the Allen Valleys by 1945. Over the previous 30 or so years, the number of pubs in the area had dwindled from more than 20 to an unspecified, but presumably comparatively low figure.

SPIRITUALISM CRITICISED: At a lecture held at St/ Wilfred's Institute in Hexham, the Rev. Charles Rouse denounced spiritualism, which was becoming popular at that time, as being tantamount to Satanism, adding, somewhat cryptically: "The fruit promised by spiritualism is but the apples of Sodom."

125 YEARS AGO

FUND-RAISING IDEA: A committee was set up at Allenheads to raise funds for the parish's poorer residents.

GAMEKEEPER ATTACKED: A gamekeeper at Holeyn Hall, Wylam, was beaten unconscious by a gang of six poachers he came across near Horsley Wood.

POULTRY PROTEST: Newbrough Town Hall was the venue for a Pelican Band of Mercy meeting, at which protests were made about cruelty to poultry.

150 YEARS AGO

HIRING FAIR: Allendale played host to a good attendance of farmers and men and women servants at its fair and hiring event.

MUCH BETTER: Street improvements were being carried out to the pant on the corner of St Cuthbert's Lane and Hencoates, Hexham.