Hexham Courant headlines in Hexham, Tynedale 150 years ago

10 years ago

WHEELCHAIR THEFT: Powerchair footballers Edward Common and Sam Smith were at the Village Hotel in Nottingham for a special presentation after their team won the Wheelchair Football Association Premier League. Their celebrations were cut short when it was discovered a Mercedes van containing four specialist chairs, each worth £6,000, had been stolen. 

HOUSING BID: A major new housing development in the centre of Hexham was hoped to protect the futures of four of the town's leading sports clubs. Almost five acres of land between Hexham Golf Club and Tynedale Cricket Club was being targeted for a multi-million pound housing scheme by a Durham development company. The land was surplus to requirements for both clubs - and the cash gained from its sale could guarantee the future not only of the two major clubs, but also the Tynedale hockey and tennis clubs which share the cricket club' facilities at Prior's Flat off Eilansgate.

GOLD STRIKE: Archaeologists working at Bardon Mill's Vindolanda site struck gold when they found a rare gold coin dating back almost 2,000 years to the reign of notorious Roman emperor Nero in the soil. It was identified as an aureus, worth half a year's pay to a serving Roman soldier. This was the first gold coin found at the site in more than 40 years of excavations.

25 years ago

JOB LOSSES: Almost 60 jobs were expected to be lost at factories in Haltwhistle and Allendale. Akzo Nobel in Haltwhistle announced a further 38 jobs would be lost at its Haltwhistle paint plant, while all but four of Hadrian International's 22 staff lost their jobs as the Allendale crystal giftware firm went into receivership. 

Jerome Flynn showed pupils from Wylam First School and Ovingham Middle School what it was like to be involved in a television drama when he visited the middle school in 1999 ahead of the latest BBC 1 series of Badger (Image: Newsquest)

BUSINESS AWARDS: Two Hexham firms picked up awards. Furnishing business Dickinson's scooped the national Soft Furnishing Retailer of the Year and estate agent Northumbria and Cumbria won the regional independent estate agent of the year award for an unprecedented third time in four years.

BEACON STATUS: Prudhoe Community High School achieved Beacon school status granted by the government, joining the Sele First School in Hexham.

50 years ago

ON TRACK: Northumberland County Council was drawing up plans to spend £43,000 on turning the disused Wylam railway line into a scenic walk.

ON STAGE: Cupid's Inspiration, then one of the UK's top bands with hits such as Yesterday has Gone to their name, played two nights in a row at Dontino's Nightspot in Hexham. 

75 years ago

SHOP TAKEOVER: Hexham's oldest grocer, the 149-year-old Hogarth and Co, was taken over by the Newcastle firm McConville and McEvoy.

PHILANTHROPIST DIES: One of West Tynedale's leading philanthropists, Florence Lilian Joicey, of Blenkinsopp Hall, near Haltwhistle, died at the age of 82.

DROUGHT FEARS: Hexham was reported to be in danger of running out of water as it was using 100,000 gallons a day more than the springs at Ladle Wells were supplying. 

TOP TURNOUT: Elections for Alston Rural Council attracted a 75 per cent turnout.

100 years ago

ORGAN ON WAY: A sale of work at Corbridge raised £145 for the village's organ fund.

125 years ago

EXTENSION AHOY: A sale of work at Allendale raised £101 towards the cost of an extension planned at the village's Woodhead Primitive Methodist chapel.

TOP MARKS: Whitfield's school was given an enthusiastic thumbs up by HM Inspectors of Schools. According to the inspector, discipline was good and its pupils were diligent and intelligent.

WATERY SCHEME: Plans were afoot for the provision of a new water system at West Nenthead for £130.

150 years ago

CHAPEL BOOST: A bazaar held at Haydon Bridge raised £92 to go towards the cost of the village's new Wesleyan chapel.

FATAL FALL: An Irishman employed at Fourstone's Prudham limestones quarry died after falling 50ft down a quarry face while walking home to Frankham Fell.