10 YEARS AGO

DIAMOND JUBILEE: Towns and villages across Tynedale were decked in red, white and blue as they geared up to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee. Events to mark the Queen's six decades on the throne got under way in earnest when over 500 school children from across Northumberland paraded in Hexham before making their way to the Abbey for the county's civic service.

SCHOOL INVESTMENT: The Department for Education announced Prudhoe High School had been successful in its bid for a cut of £2bn of funding to save it from its dilapidated state.

25 YEARS AGO

JOB LOSSES: Almost 10 per cent of the workforce at the Prudhoe Mill tissue plant was to be made redundant, it was reported. The mill's new owner, SCA Hygiene UK, a subsidiary of the Swedish company Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget, announced that it intended shedding 60 jobs there.

TWO BIRTHDAYS: The Queen's advisors were in a spot of bother when deciding when exactly Her Majesty should send Harry Dodshon his 100th birthday telegram. His birth certificate stated he was born on June 5, 1897, but his mother always told him the real date was two years earlier.

35 YEARS AGO

TALL ORDER: Barrasford and Swinburne quarries, then both operated by North Tyne Roadstone, landed a multi-million-pound contract to supply British Rail with more than 500,000 tonnes of stone for use as rail ballast over the ensuring three years.

ART THEFT: Thieves stole a painting by the Dutch master Van De Velde thought to be worth £150,000 and £50,000 worth of silverware and other works of art from a house in Hexham town centre.

SMOKE ROW: Almost 300 residents of Hexham's east end signed a petition protesting about clouds of black smoke emitted from a chimney at Hexham General Hospital, prompting Tynedale Council to threaten to call in the Department of the Environment.

50 YEARS AGO

DEMOLITION DECISION: After months of negotiation, Hexham Urban Council finally decided to press ahead with its plans to demolish two 19th century three-storey buildings in Cockshaw. Three nearby terraced houses that had been under threat were given a reprieve, however.

REGATTA WASH-OUT: That year's Hexham regatta had to be cancelled due to the river being too high at Tyne Green. The loss of income caused by this cancellation, believed to be the first in the event's 92-year history, left Hexham Boat Club facing a financial crisis, it was reported.

EDITED OUT: Edward Taylor retired as editor of the Hexham Courant after 35 years in this post. The late Mr Taylor, the longest-serving editor in the Courant's 133-year history, joined the paper as a junior reporter in 1927.

75 YEARS AGO

PREFAB PLEA: Hexham Trades Council called - without success - on urban councillors to rethink their refusal to have any prefabricated houses in the town and take up the National Coal Board's offer to provide 20 aluminium homes for local miners.

ABBEY OFFER: Hexham Abbey offered to hand over its old churchyard, known as the Abbey Grounds, to the urban council for use as a public park.

100 YEARS AGO

RUBBISH ROW: Proposals that a new rubbish tip needed at Hexham be sited down at the river, at Harbottle's Island, prompted much controversy.

SICK TOWN: Hexham's claims in various tourist guides to be a health resort came in for vehement criticism from its district council's medical officer. Dr J.A. Jackson said it was the height of absurdity for a town with an infant death rate of almost 14 per cent - among the highest in the country - and so many insanitary and overcrowded dwellings to purport to be healthy.

WYLAM BLAZE: Fire broke out at Wylam Cottage, in North Wylam, causing several thousands of pounds worth of damage.

125 YEARS AGO

INN EXPANDS: Corbridge pub the Golden Lion's plans to expand into a stable next door to it were given the thumbs-up by parish councillors there.

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING: A cow at Allendale and 16 sheep at nearby Whitfield died after being struck by lightning during a thunderstorm.

TOILET DECISION: Corbridge Parish Council agreed to site the village public conveniences then being planned for the village at the Coigns, next to the Angel Inn.

150 YEARS AGO

ACOMB EVENT: A £300 new Methodist chapel was opened in Acomb, alongside the old colliery road.

MART MOOTED: Plans were afoot to open a farmers' auction mart in Alston.

MAD DOG SHOT DEAD: A rabid dog reported to have worried a hen in Falstone was shot by the police upon its arrival in Bellingham before it could do any further mischief there.