EXACTLY 178 years ago, a large crowd gathered at Fighting Cocks corner. It was a rural location in those days, because the village we now call Middleton St George did not exist. The corner was the middle of nowhere. It was where Rykeneild Street, the
TEENAGE sweethearts who have been missing since Friday may be in London, police said last night. Officers revealed that a note had been left with a friend of Paul Baxter, 16, and his 14-year-old girlfriend Christine Rylance, who come from South Tyneside
A poisoner who tried to wreck a North-East resort's Britain in Bloom entry has failed miserably. People in Saltburn, east Cleveland, were devastated when a mystery saboteur slipped chemicals into a bowser used to water hanging baskets and tubs. Hundreds
A DRUNKEN thug has been locked up for savagely beating a man who tried to save a girl from unwanted advances. Lee Welsh, 20, punched victim Neal Hedley to the ground then kicked him in the face as he tried to get up, Newcastle Crown Court heard. He erupted
A CORONER has halted an inquest into the death of a pensioner who was dragged under a bus, and took the rare step of sending the case back to prosecutors. The inquest into the death of 86-year-old Jenny Spedding, was opened at County Hall, in Durham,
KEVIN KYLE scored an 85th-minute winner to give Sunderland a second successive victory over fellow promotion wannabes. After Saturday's win over Reading, Sunderland secured this win when Kyle powered home a header from inside the six-yard box after more
REGIONAL ASSEMBLY THE choice of Durham City as the headquarters for a North-East Assembly is unwise. A brief study of the rail network shows that Newcastle would be the central location for a future Regional Assembly. Berwick is a 45 minute journey from
Two new surveys this week made depressing reading. One, by You Gov, said that two thirds of British workers are unhappy with their jobs and wished they'd done something else. While another for recruitment agency Pertemps said that four out of five workers
TONY Blair triumphed in the toughest conference test of his Premiership yesterday with a fearless attack on failed Old Labour and a pledge never to use "reverse gear" in his drive to reform public services. In an echo of Margaret Thatcher's "the lady's
THE saga surrounding plans to scrap a toxic fleet of former US merchant navy ships in the North-East appeared to be drawing to a close on Wednesday evening Able UK, which is to dismantle the obsolete fleet at its Hartlepool base, confirmed it had won
IT'S taken the best part of 50 years, but Bill Lowe is finally able to lay to rest some of the ghoulish memories that have haunted him since his adolescence. Images of bodies being brought into hospital and war victims badly scarred by terrorist activity
MANCHESTER United showed it was capable of getting results in the boardroom as well as on the football field as it announced a rise in pre-tax profits of 22 per cent to £39.3m in the past year. Announcing its first set of financial results since the departure
NATIONAL women's cross country champions Chester-le-Street added the Northern four-stage road relay title to their growing collection with an emphatic victory at Warrington. Former Darlington Harrier Ruth Brown got the Cestrians off to a steady start,
A 16-year-old girl died today and a 30-year-old woman was seriously injured after they fell down cliffs, police said. The accident happened at the Blue Dolphin holiday park, near Filey, North Yorkshire, in the early hours of this morning. North Yorkshire
A MATHS teacher at an independent girls school was sacked for having an affair with a teenager. At 35, Andrew Bolton was nearly twice the age of the girl he was seeing. But he said at an employment tribunal he only began a relationship with the 18-year-old
A COUNTY councillor has defended his decision to vote on a controversial bid for a waste management site, despite disapproval from the national Standards Board for breaching the councillors' code of conduct. Knaresborough's Bill Hoult was the subject
A CHEMICAL factory which looks set to close with the loss of 100 jobs was due to undergo a £2.25m upgrade, it has emerged. Great Lakes Chemical Corporation announced this week that it is proposing to close its plant in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.
Two new surveys this week made depressing reading. One, by You Gov, said that two thirds of British workers are unhappy with their jobs and wished they'd done something else. While another for recruitment agency Pertemps said that four out of five workers
DURHAM University is to axe several departments in an £8.7m reshuffle. The university yesterday announced the decision to close the Department of East Asian Studies, phase out its European Studies programme and look into transferring its linguistics course
POLICE are appealing for the driver of a car which hit a schoolboy to come forward. Officers said the woman stopped after the incident in Ferryhill, County Durham, and got out of the car to readjust her wing mirror. She then drove off without checking
FORMER miners who suffer from debilitating Vibration White Finger are taking legal action after losing out on thousands of pounds in compensation. The Department of Industry (DTI) last night confirmed that a number of men had begun civil cases against
POLICE have released the image of this man who took part in an aggravated burglary and threatened a middle-aged man in his home. The 6ft intruder, along with a slightly shorter man, entered the house of a 47-year-old in Hambleton View, Thirsk, on Thursday
COLLEAGUES of three Greek doctors convicted over the death of a British holidaymaker have staged a 24-hour strike in support of the medics. The walkout by doctors happened at Rhodes Hospital, where Christopher Rochester, 24, from Chester-le-Street, County
A MAN from the North-East has died after he was caught in a high-speed chase in the US. Paul Graham's devastated mother, Ann Brown, said her dying son hung on to life long enough to receive a visit from his eight-year-old daugher, before he suffered a
A FOSTER mother has pleaded not guilty to allegations of child cruelty dating back 16 years. Carol Brown, of Durham Road, Darlington, is accused of 17 charges of cruelty to three children under the age of 16. The 58-year-old, who is married and suffers
A year ago, a toll road opened in the heart of Durham City. Twelve months later, with congestion reduced, the scheme is being hailed a success. Mark Summers reports DRIVER Angus Griffin found himself in the media spotlight a year ago today when he unwittingly
Police were last night examining security camera pictures from a top London hotel where a group of Premiership footballers are accused of gang-raping a teenager. The 17-year-old girl claims she consented to sex with one player but was then attacked by
Wife Swap (C4) Wife Swap Changed My Marriage (C4) What man hasn't wished at some point they could swap their wife or partner for a different model - one that would obey their every command and be totally without annoying little habits. The reality of
MANCHESTER United showed it was capable of getting results in the boardroom as well as on the football field as it announced a rise in pre-tax profits of 22 per cent to £39.3m in the past year. Announcing its first set of financial results since the departure
THE long arm of the law finally caught up with a bogus cop who launched a blitz on dangerous drivers. Sharon McLachlan stole a uniform from a police station and started handing out tickets - stopping speeding cars and slapping fixed penalty notices on
ELEVENTH hour talks were being held last night to resolve the future of British Energy, the troubled nuclear power group facing administration. The generator, which provides a fifth of the UK's electricity needs, had a deadline of midnight to secure the
CAR dealer Reg Vardy is today expected to formally unveil the latest step in its expansion. The Northern Echo revealed last month that the Sunderland group was on the verge of snapping up four dealerships from the Dutton-Forshaw Group. Agreement on the
BRITISH Airways was yesterday eclipsed as Europe's biggest airline with the much-anticipated merger of Air France and KLM. The UK airline said it was "not threatened" by the move, but added that it wanted competition watchdogs to scrutinise the deal.
A POISONER who tried to wreck a North-East resort's Britain in Bloom entry has failed. People in Saltburn, east Cleveland, were devastated when a mystery saboteur slipped chemicals into a bowser used to water hanging baskets and tubs. Hundreds of people
RAIL chiefs were last night accused of paying scant regard to the needs of passengers as the fall-out from a series of cuts continued. The North-East Railway Passengers' Committee (RPC) launched a fresh attack on the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) for
CONSULTANTS White Young Green recorded a record year thanks to a number of North-East projects. Involvement in many of the region's major regeneration efforts, including Gateshead's Baltic Business Park, Sunderland arc and the Middlehaven and Teesdale
A MAN has appeared in court charged with causing the death of a North-East teacher in a road accident. Christopher Hornsey, of Holy House, Witton le Wear, County Durham, appeared before Teesside Crown Court yesterday accused of causing death by dangerous
POLICE have switched their search for a missing shop worker to York after he was spotted the day after his disappearance. Officers want to speak to 32-year-old Gary Crawford about thousands of pounds which went missing from the safe of a town centre store
TONY Blair triumphed in the toughest conference test of his Premiership yesterday with a fearless attack on failed Old Labour and a pledge never to use "reverse gear" in his drive to reform public services. In an echo of Margaret Thatcher's "the lady's
Lest anyone suppose this to be just another autumnal first day of October, it should joyfully be recorded that today is the feast day of Ceres, Fides, Melorius, Remigius and of Vedast. Ceres was the Roman goddess of agriculture - as in cereal, presumably
THERE isn't a stable in the land with a stronger team of two-year-olds than Mark Johnston, fancied to notch yet another juvenile scorer courtesy of Kentmere (1.40) in the opener at Newcastle this afternoon. Kentmere failed only by the width of a fag paper
AN attempted betting coup which would have cost bookmakers £10,000 fell apart at the last minute. Staff at Sedgefield Racecourse, in County Durham, recruited a gold medal-winning athlete to represent them in the annual Mascot Grand National at the weekend
A FINANCIAL director stole hundreds of thousands of pounds from a North-East garage partly by laundering money through other people's bank accounts, a court heard yesterday. Mary Blair, 54, admitted stealing more than £600,000 from her employers, PMB
