Hexham Courant headlines in Tynedale up to 150 years ago

10 years ago

HEATWAVE: After the mildest winter in decades, Tynedale was basking in glorious summer sunshine. Parks in Hexham and elsewhere were filled with shirt-sleeved office workers lapping up the lunchtime sun, while Haltwhistle's open-air pool was enjoying one of its best seasons on record. Youngsters went swimming everywhere from the Tyne to the pool below the waterfall at Bellingham's Hareshaw Linn. 

BUG STRUCK: More than 120 children and staff at a Tynedale middle school were struck down by a violent sickness and diarrhoea bug. The situation at Corbridge Middle School was so bad that both Public Health England and Northumberland County Council's environmental health teams were alerted. 

PARKING SNUB: A call by Hexham's MP Guy Opperman for parking charges to be dropped at Hexham Hospital was resoundingly snubbed. After keeping the MP waiting for more than two months for a reply to his request, the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust told the Courant it had no intention of dropping the charges.

NEW LEASE OF LIFE: Funding from the 'Queen of Shops' Mary Portas was to inject a new lease of life into Prudhoe's Front Street. Money from a high street innovation fund was go towards creating a marketing campaign encouraging people to shop local.  

25 years ago

JOB LOSSES: One of Prudhoe's largest employers announced major redundancies only two months after the company was taken over by an American company. Staff at food dye manufacturers Pointing were told at a meeting that 20 people in the production department were to lose their jobs. The company was bought by Universal Foods Corporation for an undisclosed sum.

BEAST OF BODMIN: Evidence that one or more big cats were roaming in Tynedale continued to mount. Following the sighting of a panther-like creature reported in the Courant the previous week, three more witnesses came forward to say they had seen what could have been Tynedale's answer to the Beast of Bodmin. 

Michael Straughan and bride Julia Chadwick in their wedding wagon in 1999 (Image: Newsquest)

WEDDING WAGON: Truck driver Michael Straughan and his bride Julia Chadwick arrived at their wedding reception in a lorry capable of pulling 38 tonnes. The surprise wedding transport was arranged by Michael's sister Sue Stoddart. The other surprise of the day was a visit from the Queen - or Queen impersonator Elizabeth Richards - who arrived at Hexham Register Office in full regalia.   

50 years ago

MILL TROUBLE: Fire broke out at Fourstones Paper Mill destroying several thousands of pounds' worth of paper. 

PET MASSACRE: Sadistic raiders broke into a barn at Eltringham, near Prudhoe, and slaughtered a pregnant pet cat, 17 rabbits and two hens. 

ON THE ROAD: The £7 million contract for the long-awaited Hexham and Corbridge bypass road, work on which was to start the month after, was awarded to Gateshead-based civil engineering firm John Mowlem & Co.  

75 years ago

WATER ON WAY: Hexham Rural District Council came up with plans to create six new reservoirs to improve supplies of water to Hexhamshire, Corbridge, Sandhoe, Oakwood and Acomb. The reservoirs proposed included a 208,000-gallon one near Dilston and another able to accommodate 121,000 gallons of water, at Moorgair, near Slaley.

LIGHT FANTASTIC FURORE: Half Riding Mill's 500-strong population packed out a public meeting at the village hall to object to plans to slap a three-month ban on dances at the hall. This ban had been decided on by the hall's management committee because of complaints about drunkenness and rowdyism at a previous dance. 

PRESIDENTIAL VISIT: Bellingham Young Farmers' Club secretary Betty Wilkinson met US president Harry Truman while on an exchange visit to America. 

100 years ago

DOCTOR MOURNED: Hexham GP Duncan Stewart, one of the founders of the old Hexham War Memorial Hospital and an erstwhile urban councillor, died aged 78. 

VICARAGE EXPANSION: A sale of work at Whitley Chapel Parish Hall raised £122 to go towards the cost of a £2,000 extension being built at the Hexhamshire village's vicarage.

125 years ago

NONAGENARIAN DIES: Alston's oldest occupant, Jane Vipond, a widow, died aged 93.

IN FLAMES: A haystack near Corbridge railway was consumed by flames. The hay destroyed by this blaze was reportedly worth £80.

150 years ago

FATAL FALL: A 15-year-old farm servant died after being thrown from a horse at the farm at Brunton, near Wall, where he worked.