THOUSANDS of Gateshead FC fans will make the journey to the capital this weekend in hope of seeing their team return to the Football League after more than 50 years. Cambridge United stand in their way of being promoted from the Skrill Premier
SAM Collins has signed a new contact to remain at Hartlepool United - and will also now have additional coaching responsibility. The centre-half, soon to turn 37, is taking up the role of of assistant first / reserve team coach for the 2014/15
FIRE crews rescued a bullock from a well.The animal fell 12ft into the well yesterday (Friday) in the grounds of Kirkham Priory, near Malton, North Yorkshire.The rescue crews used various equipment and called on the assistance of a fork lift truck to
A YOUNG father who died in a car accident in the early hours of New Year’s Day was twice the drink-drive limit, an inquest heard. Matthew James Longstaff was killed after losing control of his car on the outskirts of Darlington and hitting an elderly
“BRITAIN’S best unsigned blues rockers” will top the bill at an eagerly awaited music night next month.The Idle hands will headline at Sedgefield Rock and Blues Club in Sedgefield, County Durham, on Saturday, June 17.The band, which
THE Health Secretary is to rule whether alternatives to replacing a consultant-led maternity unit with one run by midwives has been thoroughly examined.Jeremy Hunt asked the NHS Independent Reconfiguration Panel to review Hambleton, Richmondshire and
FAMILY and friends of a grandmother stabbed and strangled over £30 wept as a 999 call was played to the jury in the trial of a neighbour accused of her murder.The call, by Rose Doughty's granddaughter Emma MacDonald, followed her discovery of
A MAN had to be cut free after two cars collided in Middlesbrough town centre.The incident happened on Wilson Street at the entrance to the car park for Hillstreet Shopping Centre.A man became trapped inside a blue Renault Megane with a suspected neck
PETER BARRON, the editor of The Northern Echo, today won a prestigious national award for outstanding services to journalism. The Northern Echo also picked up two "highly commendeds" at the Society of Editors' Regional Press Awards in London, one
TWO men were yesterday (Friday, May 16) jailed for bringing a large consignment of cocaine to the North-East.Alexander Dobbing, 35, who organised the collection of almost two kilograms of the class A drug from Merseyside, received an eight year sentence.Co-accused
A MARKET trader alleged behind a six-figure credit card scam “failed to read the fraudster's handbook”, a court heard. Stuart Bell's barrister Matthew Harding questioned why the defendant had “set out on a fraud in which detection was almost inevitable
FOR those of a certain age, TV personality Johnny Ball is remembered as the man behind shows such as Think Of A Number. Younger people will know him as the father of disc jockey Zoe Ball. Recognised in the fields of science and mathematics, he actually
MOTORISTS in Darlington can expect delays as work to replace a congested town centre roundabout continues.The Stonebridge roundabout, on the town's inner ring road, is being replaced with a light-controlled junction to improve the flow of traffic
TWO new exhibitions exploring ancient and modern aspects of Japan will open to the public tomorrow (Saturday, May 17).Exquisite enamels and colourful cinema art are the subjects of two exhibitions at Palace Green Library in Durham.The Seven Treasures:
A MOTORCYCLIST and a lorry have been involved in a serious crash on the B1264 at Low Worsall, near Yarm. The collision was reported at 3.35pm today (Friday, May 16) and emergency services are currently at the scene. The road is closed
FIREFIGHTERS have launched an investigation into a blaze – at their own training centre.North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said four crews were called to a fire at its Easingwold base at 4pm on Thursday (May 15), which destroyed the roof of the building.It
SCHOOLCHILDREN swapped blackboards for chopping boards when they took part in the world’s biggest ever cookery lesson led by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.More than 200 youngsters at Fishburn Primary School in County Durham watched live footage of
COUNCILLORS have gone against officers and approved plans for a new home at a farm.Durham County Council's northern area planning committee was recommended to reject the development planned at North View Farm, Esh Hilltop, near Langley Park.The committee
FIREFIGHTERS with sonar equipment today (Friday, May 16) joined police in the search for missing student Luke Pearce.The popular 19-year-old engineering student disappeared in the early hours of Sunday (May 11).He had been drinking with friends in Jimmy
A PUB has backed Chubby Brown and Journey South’s World Cup football anthem by launching a real ale. Denise Oddy, licensee of The Golden Lion, in Helperby, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, said its Alternative England brew had been selling as fast
MAGGIE’S Newcastle – a support centre for people with cancer - is celebrating its first birthday with the news it has exceeded all expectations.Since the eye-catching centre in the grounds of the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle was opened by
SAM Collins has signed a new contact to remain at Hartlepool United - and will also now have additional coaching responsibility. The centre-half, soon to turn 37, is taking up the role of of assistant first / reserve team coach for the 2014/15
CURTIS GOOD is adamant Australia will not attempt to “park the bus” during the World Cup finals despite being drawn in a daunting group that also features Spain, Holland and Chile. Having been named in the Socceroos’ provisional 30-man squad for
YOUNG people are forefront of the mind of Darlington’s latest mayor as he looks forward to a year in office.The town’s dignitaries turned out in force last night (Thursday, May 15) to see Charles Johnson hand over the mayoral chains of office
WORKERS at a car parts maker have voted to become part of a union.Staff at Nifco UK, in Eaglescliffe, near Stockton, were balloted for representation from Unite.Union bosses say about 70 per cent of workers voted to be part of the union.Paddy Hill, Unite
MIDDLESBROUGH Powerchair Football Club is celebrating after topping a public poll to get the biggest share of the £10,000 Goalden Giveaway ahead of nine other Teesside community champions.Dozens of local charities, community groups and schools applied
DAN GOSLING has admitted he felt “frustrated” at his lack of his involvement with Newcastle United, and is looking forward to kick-starting his career with Bournemouth. Gosling left Newcastle as a free agent at the end of the season, having made
A HEADY new Norse deodorant - containing notes of sweat, mead and mud, with undertones of fetid meat - has been produced to bring out your inner Viking. The new fragrance for men, Norse Power, has been produced by tourism agency Visit York to give
A PILGRIMAGE to Lourdes and a chance encounter on a Scottish street led to a love story that has endured for more than six decades. Betty and Philip Magurn, who celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary tomorrow (Saturday, May 17) met during
POLICE say they have come to a compromise with the English Defence League over plans to march in Newcastle tomorrow. The far right group had wanted to hold a protest in the West End of Newcastle at lunchtime, despite requests from Northumbria Police
MIDDLESBROUGH have kicked off their summer restructuring process by releasing eight players, four of whom boast experience with the first team. Goalkeeper Jayson Leutwiler, defenders Stuart Parnaby and Frazer Richardson, and midfielder Cameron
STORYTIME became a dotty affair at a North-East Library when staff dressed up as ladybirds to tell tales. The event saw storytime leaders at Darlington Library dress up as the bugs in honour of an upcoming production of What the Ladybird Heard
TWO rogue traders jailed for what investigators called one of the worst cases they had seen have had their sentences increased. The Court of Appeal today (May 16) ruled the original terms handed out to North Yorkshire pair Monty Croke, 46, and
JAMIE Goldswain has been named as the overall Nightingale Award winner for 2014 by the South Tees Hospitals Trust.Jamie, a healthcare assistant on ward two at James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, also landed the award for healthcare assistant
THE demand for food banks continues to grow in the region, with a new distribution centre opening in an affluent County Durham town.This week, a food bank opened in Sedgefield, where according to property website Zoopla.co. uk, the typical house price
HOMEOWNERS living near the proposed site for 64 new houses have accused the developer of ignoring the impact the scheme would have on their properties.More than 300 residents signed a petition objecting to plans by David Wilson Homes to build the development
INTREPID climbers scaled the equivalent of Mount Everest by ascending a cathedral tower more than 200 times.A team of 30 volunteers raised thousands of pounds for charity by climbing the steps of Durham Cathedral.The gruelling challenge was to climb the
VOLUNTEERS are looking for teams to compete in the 13th Hartlepool RNLI golf day to be held at Seaton Carew Golf Club later this month.The cost of entry to the event, on Monday, May 26, is £60 per team, which includes the golf and a hot meal.The
DOGS Trust Darlington is appealing for a temporary foster carer for a dog that has recently undergone surgery to his tail. Jim, a medium-sized crossbreed, was taken to the Sadberge rehoming centre about a month ago after being found as a stray.
SENIOR staff at one of the region’s most successful educational trusts have won high praise after being invited to meet the Prime Minster.A delegation from Carmel Education Trust travelled to a special reception at Number 10 Downing Street to mark
STUDENTS have been rewarded for their efforts after raising community awareness about tolerance and disability.Darlington’s former mayor, Cllr Charles Johnson, has donated £1,000 to Carmel College from his charitable fund after hearing how
STAFF, residents and families at a Newton Aycliffe care home are celebrating after it was named as one of the most recommended in the North-East.Rose Lodge Care Home was rated the seventh out of 876 homes in the region by carehome.co.uk, an online directory
ORGANISERS of a trio of attractions are hoping for a repeat success.Hundreds of people flocked to a monthly car boot sale, farmers’ market and craft and collectors fayre organised jointly for the first time in Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham
ANTIQUES expert David Harper is teaming up with the Alzheimer’s Society to raise dementia awareness.Barnard Castle-based Mr Harper, star of shows such as Bargain Hunt and The Antiques Road Trip, will host valuations session as part of a special
AN amateur dramatics society will commemorate the centenary of the First World War with a spectacular showcase of words, music, drama and dance. Sedgefield Players’ Not in Sorrow, But in Pride will feature two one-act plays, trench songs, traditional
TWO North-East artists have been short-listed for a top prize in a prestigious wildlife exhibition. Jessica Irena Smith of Consett, County Durham, and Simon Griffiths, of nearby Castleside, will both be displaying work in the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation
POLICE are now using powers to ban known offenders from parts of Darlington including shops, streets and even entire areas of the town.Officers are using Exclusion Orders that are issued by a court upon a criminal conviction and are part of a wider sentencing
BURGLARS scaled a six foot wall to steal a large quantity of camping and walking gear from a locked shed and a secured garage off Coronation Avenue, in Shildon. The thieves also took power tools and garden equipment in the raid overnight between
TWENTY years of women’s priestly ministry will be celebrated this weekend in a special service at York Minster. Female priests, family, friends and well-wishers from across the region will attend the 11am service on Saturday. The Dean of York
GOVERNMENT officials have blamed local leaders after ‘enterprise zones’ failed to create tens of thousands of jobs, a report reveals today. The zones – including two in the North-East – have delivered just 4,649 posts so far, not the 54,000 promised
A SCREAM style charity ghost hunt at the Darlington Civic Theatre has raised £385 for charity. The event, inspired by the Scream cult horror films, was held in aid of St Teresa's Hospice and the Gladmiral charity. Organiser Dean Maynard hopes
A PANEL of horticultural experts will share their knowledge at a gardeners’ question time event in Sedgefield this summer.The event, at the Parish Hall on Friday, July 4, will see Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Britain in Bloom judges answer
TEACHERS and pupils have raised nearly £1,500 for an overseas expedition with a sponsored row.Four staff and 16 sixth formers from St Leonard’s Catholic School, in Durham City, took to rowing machines in the Metro Centre, Gateshead, to row
USUALLY a bad hair day is an unwelcome development.But not for children at Bowburn Infants and Nursery School, in Bowburn, near Durham, who donned bizarre hairstyles to raise money for the North East Autism Society.Each child taking part made a small
COUNTY councillors have approved plans for a new bungalow on the edge of a village, despite a parish council's opposition.Durham County Council's northern area planning committee passed an outline planning application from James Rewbury to build
DURHAM will be banking on new one-day skipper Mark Stoneman and Phil Mustard to get them off to a cracking start in the NatWest T20 Blast this evening, writes TIM WELLOCK. Now wishing to be known as the Jets in this competition, Durham look a little
FACED with the television cameras and microphones of the media, a former European Cup winner sat proudly alongside a younger assistant who could boast almost a decade of achievements in the top two tiers of the English game.Yet for all Gary Mills, the
SO whose brilliant idea was it to decide that cars don’t need spare tyres any more? Sorry, but it must have been a man. All that emphasis on saving space in the boot - what are you going to put in it that’s more useful than a spare tyre? And what
A BRAVE wife and mother put her fears for her husband’s health to one side to hold a fundraising event for a local hospice. Dr Gulia Karimova-Hildreth organised a 70th birthday party for her husband, Professor Tony Hildreth, after he defied doctors
EXPLORING the world is not a novel concept, but thanks to the number of gadgets now at our disposal, its certainly a very different experience. With valuable information often just a mouse-click away, the globe is effectively shrinking while at
JASON GILLESPIE says his Yorkshire players should have no problems making the quick adjustment from Championship cricket to Twenty20 ahead of tonight’s NatWest Blast opener against reigning champions Northamptonshire at Headingley. A lot is made
NOEL Coward’s spirited comedy, Blithe Spirit, is a much more serious play than most people remember. Madame Arcati is the one that sticks in the mind rather than the dark streak running through the story. In Damian Cruden’s top notch revival
Masterchef: The Finals (BBC1, 8.30pm) JUST one three-course meals stands between the three finalists and judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace deciding which one will succeed last year’s victor Natalie Coleman. This final is tougher than ever
WHEN will this country, and the idiots in it who are involved in the running the farcical nonsense called the Eurovision Song Contest, come to their senses? Surely a more suitable title would be that of the European Circus of Oddities, Curiosities
FOR years the three main parties have failed to protect our borders. They have sleep-walked into a situation where we are now seeing enclaves of migrants from Eastern Europe totally overwhelming local schools, hospitals and public services.
IN reply to Pete Winstanley’s analysis of current German economic success (HAS, May 2), I was thinking not so much of present circumstances as of the early post-Second World War period. The latter was, for Germany, a time of revival, growth, optimism
ENERGY supplier Eon will pay a record £12m to vulnerable customers after breaking sales rules.Regulator Ofgem said the redress package reflects the harm caused by Eon's poor sales practices between June 2010 and December 2013. Ofgem said the
READINGJimmy Taylor’s letter about the Easington disaster (HAS, Apr 26) on May 29, 1951, took me back to when I did my coal face training there. We did 13 weeks training then, back in 1950. We were based at a collection of Nissen huts not far from
THE Northern Echo carried an article on Darlington’s third annual jazz festival (Echo, Apr 28) which mentioned that one of the headline acts was The Al Wood Nine. What a blast from the past for me. Before we lived in Gainford (we moved here
INSTEAD of testing medicines, drugs, cosmetics etc on poor, innocent, harmless and defenceless animals, why don’t they test them on murderers and the like in our prisons – or would that be a breach of their human rights and end up with huge compensation
MORE than a quarter of takeaway meals labelled nut free were contaminated with peanuts during test purchases - some at a level which may prove fatal for allergy sufferers. The investigation was carried out by North Yorkshire Trading Standards at
"THE winning bell at the Manor House, always rung when a race of £1,000 or over is won, was pulled so lustily that the stout iron chain broke," said The Northern Echo, reporting on its front page one of the great "romances of the
SOCIAL housing tenants who were forced to remove tall fences from around their back gardens say they live in fear of anti-social youths.Housing provider livin told residents of Langdale Place, in Newton Aycliffe, the high fences were to be replaced with
DEVELOPERS have defended multi-million pound plans to build digs for nearly 200 students on the edge of Durham’s Green Belt.Ashcourt Properties has applied for planning permission to build five accommodation blocks, each two or three storeys high
WITH reference to both “Alarm as peers say: Let’s get fracking” by Rob Merrick and Joe Willis and the editorial comment (Echo, May 8), I thought that the views of Greenpeace may be of interest. The group’s website gives a full and comprehensive
NEWCASTLE UNITED are keen to add some promising talent to Alan Pardew’s squad this summer – while the drive to add greater experience will continue too. Pardew has already informed chief scout Graham Carr and the boardroom about a number of potential
LIVERPOOL were the best attacking team, and Chelsea boasted the meanest defence, but when it came to the final reckoning, Manchester City were crowned Premier League champions because they could do a little bit of everything better than anyone else
SUNDERLAND have been praised by Brendan Rodgers for helping Fabio Borini to rediscover his belief before hinting the Italian could earn a Liverpool stay this summer.Just days after playing the final game of his season-long loan at the Stadium of Light
A MARKET trader alleged to have committed a £133,000 credit card scam said he and his partner had “massive overdrafts”. Stuart Bell also denied being responsible for cash machine withdrawals totalling more than £37,000 over a six week period which
WHEN Northern Echo columnist Harry Mead’s wife Shirley popped into her local Tesco she was flabbergasted to see his image plastered on 6ft high posters throughout the store. For unbeknown to the couple an image of the 76-year-old and his cat Billy
HIGH above the Baltic Sea, pilot Flight Lieutenant Andy Roberts runs through a range of unlikely sounding scenarios ahead of landing the RAF’s £152m air-to-air refuelling Voyager aircraft at Siauliai air base for the first time. Flt Lt Roberts
BILLIONAIRE football club owner Mike Ashley may have suffered double derby defeats on the pitch but he has beaten his North-East rival to the top of the regional rich list. The Newcastle United owner is once again the richest man in the region,
A RALLYING call has been sounded to deliver the North-East's first engineering centre of excellence.Lord Kenneth Baker yesterday met 60 business leaders to drive forward plans for a university technical college (UTC), in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.Proposals
A CONSTRUCTION firm has picked up two awards at an industry ceremony.Gus Robinson Developments, in Hartlepool, received the SME of the year and leadership and people development honours at the Constructing Excellence in the North East Awards.The firm
A CABLE cleat maker is supporting a major energy development in a £1.5m deal.Ellis, in Rillington, near Scarborough, has sent cable saddles to National Grid's London Power Tunnels project.The seven-year scheme is rewiring the capital through
A CONSTRUCTION firm has hailed improving market conditions after securing £500m work. Kier Group, which has offices in Peterlee, east Durham, Newcastle and Hebburn, South Tyneside, says the sector's growth has helped lifted its order book to £2.6bn
MORE than 6,000 children across the region - some as young as five - are providing unpaid care for a family member, research has revealed. Leading charities believe the 5,154 carers under 16-years-old identified in the North East and a further
