What made Hexham Courant headlines 150 years ago?

10 years ago

PUDSEY PARTY: Hexham rolled out the red carpet for Pudsey for BBC's Children in Need. Regional broadcasts for the televised appeal took place in the Market Place.

LEASE OF LIFE: Brothers Alistair and Jonathan Knowles bought the Royal Hotel with the intention of converting the hotel's bedrooms into 10 luxury apartments with two shops on the ground floor.

OPPOSITION: The promise of free parking failed to strike a chord with Corbridge residents, with an overwhelming majority at a public meeting objecting to the proposal.

25 years ago

CLOSURE: The battle to save Hexham's Territorial Army unit and its Drill Hall was lost according to a leaked document.

TRAGIC: One of the three dogs which was to be involved in the sponsored doggy paddle down the North Tyne tragically drowned. The three-year-old terrier Nipper drowned while on a walk with his owner, John Matthews.

SOURCE: Rotting rubbish in the Frankham tip at Fourstones was to be used to generate electricity to power 300 homes.

Persian cats Zoe and Connor, who were killed in 1996 (Image: Newsquest)

BRUSH WITH DEATH: A Hexham couple had been feeling unwell for several days at their home. They found their two silver tabby Persian cats dead one morning and tests revealed their house was full of deadly carbon monoxide gas from a gas central heating boiler.   

50 years ago

TWINNING: Prudhoe moved a step closer to twinning with French town Mitry-Mory when a delegation visited the town.

COST OF VANDALS: Thousands of pounds were spent by Hexham Urban Council to try to counter vandals to the toilet's public toilets. 

NEW ESTATE: Haltwhistle Urban Council was considering buying land with room for 600 homes.

75 years ago

HALL INTO SCHOOL: Negotiations were completed for the conversion of Ridley Hall, Bardon Mill, former home of the Hon. Francis Bowes-Lyon, uncle of the Queen, into a school for boarders and day scholars.

GUARD FOR COLOURS: Sentries in full regimental scarlet and bearskins mounted guard over the colours of the 4th Bn. the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers when they were on view at a ball at Hexham.  

100 years ago

NEW CLUB: With a view to forming a rotary club in Hexham, a preliminary meeting in the Royal Hotel was attended by a number of professional and businessmen in Hexham.

NOT OBSERVED: The festival of St Crispin, the patron saint of cordwainers or shoemakers which was once widely observed in Hexham where there were many trade guilds, passed without notice.

125 years ago

FREE CHURCH COUNCIL: At the inaugural meeting of the Hexham Evangelical Free Church Council it was stated that its chief object was the deepening of the spiritual life of the church.

INN SALE: One of the oldest hotels in Hexham, the White Hart in Fore Street was withdrawn at £7,000 at a Hexham sale. The inn was formerly the town residence for the Ridleys, a well-known county family.

150 years ago

MINERS LEAVE: Because of the poverty of the lead mining in the Alston district and the inability of the employers to pay adequate wages, 50 miners and their families, chiefly from Garrigill, left for the coal mines in East Lancashire.

DEBATING SUBJECT: Among the subjects for debate by the Hexham Mutual Improvement Society was 'Will education ever be competent to prevent crime'.

HARVEST SERVICE: Stated to be something new in local Methodism, the Wesleyans at Corbridge held a harvest Thanksgiving service in their chapel.