10 years ago

Hair today, gone tomorrow for Milly's snip for charity: A nine year old from Walk has donated 15 inches of her hair to charity which provides real hair wigs to children under going cancer treatment. With days until her 10th birthday, Hexham Middle School pupil Milly Denham decided it was the ideal time to crop the length of her locks in aid of The Little Princess Trust.

Partnership will survive hydro blow: Fears for the Hexham Community Partnership are misplaced according to its chairman. Concerns have been expressed about the future of the partnership following the Hexham River Hydo scheme last week. The project would have raised £100,000 per year for the partnership and made it self-financing for the forseeable future.

However the decision to abandon the power generating scheme in the Tyne because of the spirailing costs of the project raised question marks about the partnership's financial stability.

The partnership has been subsidised by Hexham's Town Council to the tune of £30,000 per year for a number of years. Some councillors are known to be reluctant for that hefty commitment to continue indefinetly.

The fear is that the partnership could run into some sort of financial stormy waters which have resulted in Prudhoe Partnership having to dispense with the services of its partnership officer Yvonne Probert.

20 years ago

Road closed: Plans to ban traffic completely on Hexham's Fore Street to create a pedestrian shopping area in the town were being treated with deep suspicion by many residents.

Pulling out: The Chairman of governors at the five puoil Byrness First School decided to send her children to another school because of the lack of interaction of a similar age.

Hitting the big time: St John Lee Church at Acomb was seen on national television when the Channel 4 Time Team crew conducted excavations in the church yard as part of the national archeological challenge, The Big Day.

25 years ago

First and last garage is now open again: 

The first and last garage in England has reopened after 14-month-closure. The garage near Byrness, now owned by Peter and Joan Checksfield, was given a face-lift before opening.

50 years ago

Breakaway: Villagers in Rochester threatened to form their own parish council after a series of rows with its neighbour Byrness, also part of Rochester parish.

Mistrust: Chief planning officer Alan Phillipson said he was "concerned and disturbed" that the developers of Slaley Hall golf complex had started work on part of the scheme before planning permission had been granted.

Stubbed out: Smoking was banned in the auditorium of Hexham's Forum Cinema by owner Rod Dickman - although he was a smoker himself.

75 years ago

Party Time: Haydon Bridge Cricket Club celebrated its centenary with a family fun day at its ground.

Blasphemy: Vandals broke into St Cutherburt's Church at Allendale and sprayed furniture with a fire extinguisher, tried to prise offertory boxes open, littered the church grounds and most outragously of all, smoked in the church.

100 years ago

Pool Plea:  A member of Haltwhistle RDC suggested that a swimming pool be established in the town, to discourage younger people from spending their leisure time elsewhere.

Key of the door: Nearly 300 tenants and employees from the Stagshaw and Leazes estates were entertained to dinner in a marquee at Stagshaw House, Corbridge, by the Straker family to celebrate the coming of age of the family's eldest son.

Nuisances: At Haltwhistle Magistrates' Court, five local men were fined 4s (20p) each for playing football in the street in Melkridge, and two Haltwhistle miners were fined 6s 6d (321p/2p) for firing stones from catapults.

At the deep end: Because Wark Bridge was closed for repair work, it was agreed that the old ford over the North Tyne should be temprarily re-opened.

Band Banned: A request from Bardon Mill Band to be allowed to give a concert at Allendale was opposed by the parish council, on the grounds that it would be wrong to encourage "strange bands" when the village had a band of its own.

125 years ago

Jubilee line: Haydon Bridge station was hung with bunting to mark the 50th anniversary of the line's opening.

Top brass: Prize money of £40 was up for grabs when Allendale hosted its first brass band contest in 30 years.

Not so golden: Relatives in Mickley heard in letters from two local men, Douglas Potts and R. Brown, who had joined the Gold Rush in the Klondyke, that they had found gold - but not in sufficient quantities to work.

Savage news: One of the best-known of all the rectors of Hexham Abbey, Cannon Sidney Savage, accepted the living of the abbey, in preference to Christ Church at Eastbourne, which he had been offered at the same time.