The North East | Archive | 2004 | April
THE first resident at a retirement home was greeted with flowers as she arrived this week. more...
A COMPROMISE has been reached allowing a town centre bar an hour extension three nights a week. more...
A BOWLS club is facing a financial crisis after being told it must pay full rent, which has been waived for the past few years. more...
THE jury in the trial of two men accused of being involved in a serious public order offence will be sent out to consider its verdict today. more...
CHILDREN enjoyed some climbing fun at a community in Darlington centre yesterday. more...
TWO pupils at a Darlington school will be spending their gap year working on projects in the Third World, thanks to a fundraising drive. more...
HELPING others overcome their fear of computers has brought success to a County Durham woman. more...
A POLICE force is overhauling two of its sections to create an expanded road policing unit. more...
IMPROVEMENT works on an east Durham town's cemetery and fire station are nearing completion. more...
TEENAGERS are giving up part of their holiday to sample university life and work towards their exams. more...
HUNDREDS of people visited Winkies Castle over the Easter weekend to see what the future holds for the property. more...
HUNDREDS of homes are to be built across Teesside to fill a gap in the rental market. more...
YOUNGSTERS helped to create the largest nest seen in Guisborough forest at an activity morning yesterday. more...
A HOUSEWIFE will open her front room to the 117 electorate in the village of Dunsdale next Thursday. more...
YOUNGSTERS living at a homeless persons' unit are celebrating after getting their own play area. more...
EDUCATION chiefs are celebrating after passing a difficult examination. more...
MORE than 100 affordable homes are to be made available in Richmondshire thanks to £5.1m funding from Westminster. more...
HARD working staff at two hospitals have been praised from independent health watchdogs who were impressed by their commitment and quality of care. more...
A ROYAL Air Force flying instructor has been celebrating the 40th anniversary of his first solo flight as an RAF pilot. more...
A series of courses aimed at introducing people to new hobbies will be held at the Arc, in Stockton. more...
PROPOSALS to turn a former windmill in Ingleby Barwick into bed and breakfast accommodation are likely to be approved. more...
HARD-working staff at two hospitals have received high praise from independent health watchdogs who were impressed by their level of commitment and quality of care. more...
HOSPICE patients and schoolchildren are to benefit from charity events at two Bishop Auckland bookmakers. more...
HUNDREDS of low-cost homes will be built on former hospital sites. more...
A FAMILY is devastated after the theft of six pet lambs on Easter Sunday. more...
SPEEDING drivers will be electronically shamed into slowing down at problem sites thanks to an increase in the number of flashing speed warning signs. more...
FIREFIGHTERS are making final preparations for an assault on Everest base camp. more...
A COMMUNITY centre that fulfilled a 50-year-old dream for residents is hoping to expand. more...
A REPORT on Darlington's library provision urges councillors to give 'urgent attention' to building a new library in the north of the town. more...
THE truck ride that crashed and overturned into a river at the popular Diggerland theme park at Langley Park, near Durham, has been shut down while safety inspections take place. more...
POLICE are appealing for witnesses after a teenager was robbed at knifepoint as he walked home with his girlfriend. more...
AN arts and crafts exhibition staged by senior citizens attracted a full hall at a Newton Aycliffe Community Centre. more...
A COUPLE got much more than they bargained for when they asked their local supermarket for help in raising cash for a much-needed scooter for their disabled son. more...
POLICE will increase patrols in an area struggling to cope with gangs of teenagers roaming the streets. more...
HUNDREDS of low-cost homes will be built on former hospital sites. more...
THE truck ride that crashed and overturned into a river at the popular Diggerland theme park at Langley Park, near Durham, has been shut down while safety inspections take place. more...
THE sport of whippet racing has adopted a North-East town as the home for one of it's main events. more...
SHOPPERS visiting a new store in Consett had to look twice, when a familiar face called in. more...
A FACTORY worker who went back to the classroom has been shortlisted for an award from the NHS Universit'. more...
HUNDREDS of low-cost homes will be built on former hospital sites. more...
THOUSANDS of people flocked to a castle in the region at the weekend as it became the setting for a massive food festival. more...
THE changing fortunes of one of Britain's most famous retailers were thrown into the spotlight once again by another bombshell announcement to the City. more...
A LUXURY castle hotel has joined forces with Europe's leading provider of wireless broadband Internet connections for business travellers to keep its guests in touch with the World Wide Web. more...
THE changing fortunes of one of Britain's most famous retailers were thrown into the spotlight once again by another bombshell announcement to the City. more...
WORK to fit the Army's Challenger II tanks with a controversial - and desperately needed - battlefield communications system will safeguard jobs at Alvis Vickers' North-East manufacturing plant. more...
FILTRONIC'S fluctuating economic fortunes are continuing with the company unveiling a mixture of good and bad news. more...
THE region's manufacturers will be looking at a sunnier summer period with industry picking up across Europe, a leading economist has predicted. more...
BELEAGUERED Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel has approached the French government about a rescue package. more...
THOUSANDS of London cabbies are in line for windfalls worth nearly £5,000 after Radio Taxis set out on the road to demutualisation. The conversion involves US entrepreneur Brian McBride taking a 26 per cent stake in the business, with the remaining shares spread between staff. more...
A 6FT portrait of Peter Mandelson will be the focus of an art exhibition due to open on Teesside next month. more...
REMEMBER that scary movie in which Anthony Hopkins played a mad ventriloquist who thought his dummy was alive and had conversations with it? more...
Stars of the hit 1970s TV show, The Comedians, are reuniting for a threatre tour. Viv Hardwick talks to baby of the bunch Mick Miller. more...
Bad Girls (ITV1); Every Time You Look At Me (BBC2): MY feeling is that the strike by prison officers this week could only make things better for the women behind bars at Larkhall, where it's a toss-up whether inmates or screws are more bent. Frankly, they all need locking up. more...
Ambitious plans were announced yesterday to boost a North-East museum which was threatened with partial closure five years ago but is now enjoying a new lease of life. more...
THIS short but emotionally draining work is partly autobiographical; Tennessee Williams' own sister underwent devastating brain surgery at her mother's behest, although there was apparently no physical abnormality. more...
LORD Of The Rings star Viggo Mortensen has ridden horses since he was young, but even an experienced rider like him knew there were risks to saddling up for so much of his latest movie. more...
BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS (Cert 15, also available to buy DVD £15.99): Starring: Stephen Campbell Moore, Emily Mortimer, Jim Broadbent, Simon Callow, Peter O'Toole, John Mills, Hugh Laurie. more...
She may be the object of male fantasies as porn actress Athena in The Girl Next Door, but Elisha Cuthbert is also a masterful mechanic, she tells Steve Pratt. more...
Actress Laura Fraser talks to Steve Pratt about her role as the feisty Emily in the new Anthony Trollope adaptation, He Knew He Was Right, and about living a cross-Atlantic life. more...
As Coronation Street's Sally Webster, actress Sally Whittaker is the stage mum from hell. In real-life, she's rather her children steered clear of the profession. more...
IT'S impossible to stay pessimistic around a toddler. Take that day in late August. After the hottest summer for years, it was suddenly more like November, cold and dank with sudden drenching showers. To give the little one some fresh air and exercise, we went to the nature reserve, once he'd woken from his afternoon nap. more...
Yvonne's ghost behind bars more...
THERE were a few intriguing messages on my answerphone last week, from Kim at Channel 4. She wanted help with a documentary she was working on, but didn't give any further details. When we finally spoke, I realised why she had been so vague. The programme was Channel 4's Wife Swap and the "help" Kim wanted involved me appearing on it. more...
THERE were a few intriguing messages on my answerphone last week, from Kim at Channel 4. She wanted help with a documentary she was working on, but didn't give any further details. When we finally spoke, I realised why she had been so vague. The programme was Channel 4's Wife Swap and the "help" Kim wanted involved me appearing on it. more...
A mother's poems about her murdered son is helping her through her grief. Chris Webber found out how poetry and art can help the bereaved. more...
IT'S impossible to stay pessimistic around a toddler. Take that day in late August. After the hottest summer for years, it was suddenly more like November, cold and dank with sudden drenching showers. To give the little one some fresh air and exercise, we went to the nature reserve, once he'd woken from his afternoon nap. more...
DARLINGTON Football Club is caught in a Catch 22 situation.The only apparent way forward is via the Sterling Consortium's bid to take over the club. more...
REGIONAL GOVERNMENT: WILLIAM Hague (Echo, Apr 5) produces a flawed argument by stating: "With the best will in the world, the understanding of local circumstances possessed by people from the other end of the country will be less good than that of people who live locally." more...
IT'S impossible to stay pessimistic around a toddler. Take that day in late August. After the hottest summer for years, it was suddenly more like November, cold and dank with sudden drenching showers. To give the little one some fresh air and exercise, we went to the nature reserve, once he'd woken from his afternoon nap. more...
BRITAIN was preparing to increase the firepower of its forces in Iraq as the US Army laid siege to the holy city of Najaf. more...
NEIGHBOURS have spoken of their shock at seeing a couple led away from their home by armed police looking for a gunman. more...
With her 30th birthday looming she has had more to worry about than most. more...
A LARGE dog is being blamed for the killing of one sheep and the maiming of another in a North-East village. more...
A MOTHER has spoken of her horror as she watched her daughter plunge into a shallow stream after an accident at a popular North-East visitor attraction. more...
COMEDIENNE Brenda Collins, who has appeared at such illustrious venues as the London Palladium, is to return to her County Durham roots to present a one-night fundraiser. more...
THE University of York has won a £200,000 contract to train employees in the fast-growing e-science sector. more...
A YOUNG mother from a travelling community has received a national basic skills award. more...
CRISIS-HIT Darlington Football Club is only a week from disaster, administrators said last night. more...
FOUR decades ago, the local authorities surrounding RAF Middleton St George bought the airfield and its acres of land for the princely sum of £340,000. more...
A five-month-old baby injured in an accident on the A19 on Saturday was last night in a stable condition. more...
TRIBUTES have been paid to one of the region's oldest residents after she died aged 105. more...
POLICE targeting bikers in a speeding blitz discovered they were not the worst offenders on the road. more...
A LOCAL authority is to remove all its dog-fouling signs from wooden telephone poles amid claims that it put them up without permission. more...
A WOMAN who was in a stolen car that led police on a high-speed chase through a busy town centre has avoided jail "by the closest possible margin". more...
A hard-working guide dog was treated to a pampering yesterday. more...
GAS suppliers will be urged to pledge £25m to a campaign to cut the number of deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning at a meeting next month. more...
A DIVER from the North-East was named yesterday as one of two people whose bodies were found in a quarry by search teams over the Bank Holiday weekend. more...
Ambitious plans were announced yesterday to boost a North-East museum which was threatened with partial closure five years ago but is now enjoying a new lease of life. more...
A DOG walker could hold vital clues in the hunt for a man missing for more than two weeks. more...
TRANSPORT group First said last night it was hopeful of success in its bid to bring night mail trains back to the North-East. more...
POLICE have arrested two people on suspicion of attempted murder after an attack in which a man had part of his ears chewed off. more...
VANDALS have caused thousands of pounds of damage to a train after planting highly explosive gas cylinders on North-East rail tracks. more...
TRIBUTES were paid yesterday to a respected barrister who has died of gastric cancer at the age of 42. more...
An Elvis impersonator's career is on the rocks because he got too fat for his jumpsuit. more...
AWARD-WINNING young swimmer Laura Whitfield received tips from the top yesterday. more...
TRIBUTES have been paid to council leader and health service champion Alan Gray, who has died aged 56. more...
BRITAIN is preparing to increase the firepower of its forces in Iraq as the US army lays siege to the city of Najaf. more...
A farmer turned entrepreneur has been given final approval to create a multi-million pound golf course and hotel on his land. more...
POSTERS appealing for help in finding six stolen lambs have been torn down. more...
SIR BOBBY ROBSON last night saluted his "two old-timers'' after Alan Shearer and Gary Speed steered Newcastle into the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup. more...
SUNDERLAND'S promotion push was given a massive boost last night when goalkeeper Mart Poom was passed fit for Sunday's crucial Stadium of Light showdown with West Brom. more...
HOLLAND might be famous for being the birthplace of some of the greatest painters of all time, but Mateja Kezman found himself returning to Eindhoven last night after having been given a lesson in the art of heading by two of Newcastle's very own grand masters. more...
MIDDLESBROUGH striker Danny Graham has agreed to help Darlington's fight against relegation by extending his loan stay at the Reynolds Arena until the end of the season. more...
WHEN Gavin Hamilton runs in to bowl his first ball for Durham in the County Championship, he will be telling himself: "It's just another cricket match." more...
AT the third time of asking Middlesbrough are hoping to finally put their hands on the FA Youth Cup next week. more...
ROGER CHARLTON is wasting no time bringing out one of last season's juveniles, Three Valleys (2.20), for this afternoon's Group 3 Craven Stakes. more...
Durham's season starts tomorrow with a trip to Hampshire. The Northen Echo's Tim Wellock, the only writer with the county home and away throughout the summer months, previews the campaign and speaks to Gavin Hamilton, the new recruit who is hoping this troubled days are behiind him. more...
NEWCASTLE banished the ghost of their catastrophic Champions League knockout here in August at the hands of Partizan Belgrade, to clinch a UEFA Cup semi-final date with Marseille after another night of high anxiety at St. James' Park. more...
NEWCASTLE banished the ghost of their catastrophic Champions League knockout here in August at the hands of Partizan Belgrade, to clinch a UEFA Cup semi-final date with Marseille after another night of high anxiety at St. James' Park. more...
JONATHAN Greening is hoping to put his experience of the Champions League to good use when Middlesbrough embark on their first ever European adventure next season. more...
ROGER CHARLTON is wasting no time bringing out one of last season's juveniles, Three Valleys (2.20), for this afternoon's Group 3 Craven Stakes. more...
THE first passengers will board flights from the North-East to two Mediterranean hot spots today. more...
VILLAGERS hope to win grants totalling £470,000 to improve their community centre, based in a former chapel. more...
A POLICE force is radically overhauling two of its sections to create an expanded road policing unit. more...
AN arts and crafts show staged by pensioners has been held in Newton Aycliffe Community Centre. more...
A POST office worker stole £2,000 from her employer less than two months after starting the job, a court heard yesterday. more...
STAFF who help holidaymakers travel to destinations across the world have turned their efforts to helping people at home. more...
A MAN is recovering after his jaw was broken in six places when he was attacked by a gang of youths. more...
ARRIVA Trains Northern (ATN) has said there will be no let-up in improvements, despite preparing to bow out of rail passenger services in the North-East. more...
© Newsquest Media Group 2008