10 YEARS AGO

BACK TO WORK: Hexham MP Guy Opperman was back in his constituency after recovering from surgery to remove a brain tumour. As he embarked on a 60-mile trek along Hadrian’s Wall for charity, he insisted he was fighting fit.

BRUTAL KILLER: A killer was at large after a brutal hammer attack which left a pensioner dead in her own home near Hexham town centre. The body of Judith Barbara Marion Richardson was found by police in her ground floor flat on St Wilfrid’s Road when they called to return her handbag which had been found more than 20-miles away.

GOLDEN YEARS: ‘Respect and pulling together’ proved the key to a 50-year marriage for Robert and Pauline Howden. The Prudhoe couple met at a dance in Hexham when they were teenagers and celebrated their golden anniversary at a party with friends and family.

FLOWER POWER: For the second year in a row, Humshaugh’s first-class flower arranger, Joy Taylor, was crowed the cream of the crop at the Gateshead Summer Flower Show.

QUARRY CONCERNS: Uncertainty over future plans for a long-abandoned quarry, Merryshields, near Stocksfield sparked concern.

25 YEARS AGO

RIDER KILLED: A motor cyclist was killed in a crash on the Otterburn-Greenhaugh road when his vehicle ran into the back of a car which, Hexham Police said, stopped because sheep were obstructing the road. The air ambulance was called out to rush Bruce Richard Barton, of Hillgate, Morpeth, to Wansbeck General Hospital after the accident on Bank Holiday Monday.

BID AXED: Proposals to build a £150,000 shelter near Nenthead for cyclists to view the sky from failed to get off the ground. Planners at Eden District Council gave the thumbs-down to Bristol-based cycling charity Sustrans’ plans to build the drystone shelter at Black Hill, on the Northumberland-Cumbria boundary. Tynedale Council’s planning committee was due to make a decision on the plans at its next meeting.

PUB SWEEP: Police swooped on revellers in Haltwhistle in a crackdown on suspected drunken disorderly and licensing offences. Four arrests were made for alleged drunk and disorderly behaviour and alleged licensing offences were investigated.

JOBS SAVED: Months of uncertainty over the future of Kimberly Clark’s Prudhoe Mill came to an end with the announcement the mill had been sold to Swedish company Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget. The deal safeguarded the 550 remaining jobs at the plant in the short-term, at least, as well as 62 posts at Unifibres next door.

HEALTH CARE: Patients in Tynedale were to be given two chances to quiz their family doctors about recent changes in health care provision.

50 YEARS AGO

SALE DENIAL: The North-Eastern Co op denied rumours it intended to sell one or more of its shops in Prudhoe’s Front Street.

SECOND BEST: Three Tynedale villages - Allendale, Wall and Humshaugh - took the runners-up in Northumberland Rural Community Council’s best-kept village contest.

UNDER FIRE: The bridge over the River Tyne at Ovingham came in for criticism from Prudhoe urban councillors. One said being blown up by an IRA bomb was the best thing that could happen to it, while another said it ought to be in a museum rather than still in use.

GROUP PRAISE: A year-long survey undertaken by a community group at Stocksfield was praised by the National Association of Parish Councils as the most ‘outstanding experiment in local government since the war’.

75 YEARS AGO

AUTHOR PRAISED: Hexham author Richard Fisher’s latest historical novel ‘Masquerader Brett’ was acclaimed by the Hexham Courant as his best thus far.

SALE SUCCESS: A bring-and-buy sale at Langley raised £90 for the village’s Methodist church.

WELCOME RETURN: The women’s section of the British Legion’s Prudhoe branch was revived after being in abeyance for some time.

BIGGER BOUNDARY: Plans were afoot to expand the Hexham parliamentary constituency - already the second biggest in the country. The Boundary Commission was reported to be considering enlarging the constituency from 39,000 electors to 50,000.

100 YEARS AGO

UNVEILING CEREMONY: A war memorial was erected at Chollerton.

ORGAN EVENT: A garden fete at Halton Castle, near Corbridge, raised £165. The proceeds were to be put towards the cost of a new organ for the church.

125 YEARS AGO

WATER WORKS: Allendale Parish Council resolved to carry out remedial work at the village’s Wentworth Place water supply after receiving reports it was in very poor condition - the tank was threequarters full of mud.

ENTRIES UP: Entries at the 20th Whitfield Floral and Horticultural Society annual show topped the year before by a sizeable margin - 500 against 370.