The Hexham Courant headlines in Tynedale up to 150 years ago

10 years ago

SHOP CLOSURE: The Border Counties Insurance offices in Priestpopple, a few doors down from the long-vacant Robinson and Cowell shop, was to close. The eight people who worked for Border Counties Insurance were offered jobs at the Newcastle offices of its parent company Towergate. 

HOTEL AUCTION: A hotel put up for sale for £2m a few months earlier was to go under the hammer with a reserve of £300,000. The 25-bedroom, Grade II-listed Otterburn Hotel was put up for auction at the Newcastle Marriott Hotel. The hotel closed in 2012.

25 years ago

A&E CUTS: Hexham Hospital's accident and emergency unit was to be staffed only by nurses at night, new plans revealed. Doctors would be on hand only between 9am and 9pm, leaving two nurse practitioners to run the department overnight. The hospital would still offer a 24-hour casualty service staffed by nurses at all times, but this would be split into two 12-hour shifts and doctors would only be available during the daytime shift.

Soccer and angling personality Jack Charlton drives through Greenhead on a journey along the Military Road at least twice a week. He was the guest star of the official opening of the Millennium Green in 1999 (Image: NQ) HOTEL TAKEOVER: The historic George Hotel in Chollerford was part of the Swallow Group, which was in the process of being swallowed up by leisure giant Whitbread. Whitbread said all existing Swallow hotels would become part of the group's Marriott hotels chain. 

CLOSURE BLAMES: Charity shops were blamed for two further shops closing in Hexham. Owners of both SM Drapers and MR Tackle said their closures were down to the rise of charity shops and the deterioration of the town centre.

50 years ago

PENNIES SPENT: Toilets at Catcleugh on the A68 trunk road built only four years earlier were to close because the chemical loos were unable to cope with the demand. 

75 years ago

GOAL FEAST: Acomb's two soccer teams scored 34 goals between them in a single afternoon, when Acomb Welfare put 15 past Slaley in the Hexham and District League, and the Welfare juniors defeated Hexham Abbey YC 19-0 in the Northumberland Junior Cup.

RECORD ENTRY: There was a record entry of more than 700 exhibits for Hexham Horticultural Society's Heart of All England chrysanthemum show at the Sele School. 

100 years ago

NOT SO CHEERY: The Hexham Cheer Up Club, started in 1915 to raise money for the war effort, closed down after raising £800 to endow a cot at the Hexham War Memorial Hospital.  

PIED PIPER: Having killed more than 1,000 rats at Newburn, a Walbottle man offered to rid all Hexham of rats for a weekly wage. The rodents were said to be multiplying rapidly after gorging themselves on offal from council slaughterhouses. 

SHOW TIME: The newly formed Haltwhistle Fur and Feather Society organised its first show, with the proviso that winners hand all over their prize money back to the society. 

125 years ago

OPENING: Corbridge's new drill hall in St Helen's Street, which cost £502 to build, was formally opened with a grand concert. 

HORSE SENSE: Following the death of one of the council's best horses, Hexham Urban Council failed to find a suitable replacement at the local horse fair and was hiring one at the rate of £1 per week. 

END OF THE ROAD: The Vicar of Birtley complained to Bellingham Rural Council that the roads to and from the village were the worst in England.

150 years ago

TEMPER, TEMPER: The Vicar of Haltwhistle, the Rev. Jos. Lowe, announced plans to form a branch of the Church of England Temperance Society in the town.   

NEW BUSINESS: Plans were submitted for the development of a coach-building business in the White Hart Inn garden, Hexham - a venture said to be very much needed. 

NO DEAL: Although the price of coal had come down considerably, directors of Hexham Gas Company refused repeated requests to reduce the price of the gas used to light the town's street lamps.