10 YEARS AGO

BRIDGE RE-OPENING: It was reported Wark Bridge could be open ahead of schedule. The lifeline had been closed since February while a £4 million scheme to repair and restore the ancient structure was carried out.

UNSAVOURY INGREDIENT: 22-year-old Lara Moore was about to bite into a chocolate muffin bought from Greggs in Prudhoe by a work colleague when she discovered an unsavoury extra ingredient, a moth.

TOILET TWINNING: Stocksfield’s Quaker community made a wee difference to sanitation provision in Africa. The Quakers improved their 100-year-old meeting house on New Ridley Road by putting in toilet facilities for people with mobility difficulties, and in doing so, members of the community decided to “twin” their new loo with two in rural Burundi.

JOBS THREAT: Staff at one of Tynedale’s biggest employers were told their jobs are at risk. But the Specials Laboratory in Prudhoe promised anyone affected by the changes would be offered alternative employment within the company.

25 YEARS AGO

FOUL PLAY: Sunday footballers at Wark cried foul when thieves stole more than £230 in cash and a number of credit cards from the changing rooms. The cards and cash were stolen from bags and coats in both teams’ changing rooms at Wark’s recreation ground, which were left unlocked while Wark’s Black Bull pub team took on Hexham’s Fox team in a Hexham and District Sunday League second division match.

CANAL PLAY: A £6bn plan for a canal from Carlisle to Newcastle has been met with amusement and disbelief in Tynedale. A consortium fronted by a Manchester businessman wanted to dig a canal for international ocean going vessels straight through the heart of Tynedale. Hexham’s MP Mr Peter Atkinson said: “When I heard about this, I had to check the date, to make sure it was the middle of September, and not April 1."

TOWN CONCERN: People living in and around Haltwhistle Town Centre claim they are being terrorised by groups of young tearaways high on drugs or drink. Despite more bobbies being out on the beat residents claimed they are terrified of leaving their own homes because of late-night lawlessness in the town. It was claimed young vandals ran riot in the early hours of the morning smashing windows, damaging vehicles and hurling abuse if challenged.

50 YEARS AGO

BAND UNDER THREAT: Ovington Prize Silver Band, the oldest group of its kind in the North-East, was reported to be facing extinction. Members feared that the 130-year-old band could go to the wall within week due to difficulties it was facing in finding a new bandmaster.

RURAL RETIREMENT: Bellingham Rural Council’s public health inspector and surveyor, Sidney Clough, retired after 33 years’ service.

TAKE-OVER PROPOSAL OPPOSED: Prudhoe Urban Council opposed plans by Stocksfield villagers to annex the western portion of its area as part of the local government review then in the offing. This suggested take-over of New Ridley Road and the Birkdene estate by Stocksfield’s parish council was suggested by the group’s neighbourhood working party.

LAUNDRY JOBS THREATENED: Hexham’s Co-operative laundry was to close, putting more than 40 people out of work, it was announced.

75 YEARS AGO

UNION PLEA: At its inaugural meeting, the National Amalgamated Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen and Clerks’ Hexham branch called on employers to offer its members better working conditions and higher wages.

CLUBBING TOGETHER: A young farmers’ club was formed at Bellingham.

DEATH OF VETERAN VILLAGER: Allendale’s oldest inhabitant, John Hall Shield, whose family was reported to have lived in the ‘Dale since 1547, died at the age of 89.

READING ROOM REVIVED: Humshaugh’s reading room was re-opened, having been closed during World War II.

100 YEARS AGO

SHOW RECORDS SMASHED: 1921’s Allendale Agriculture Society annual show attracted a record number of entries and was reported to be the best thus far.

TRIO OF MEMORIALS: War memorials of various kinds were unveiled at three Tynedale churches - a lychgate at Bellingham, a stained-glass window at Slaley and an alabaster tablet at St John Lee, near Acomb.

125 YEARS AGO

POLICE PLANS: Northumberland County Council decided to set up a police station in Prudhoe.

BUILDER’S YARD BLAZE: Fire broke out a Bellingham builder’s yard, destroying a hay shed there.