Bright future for famous Grotto
July 19, 2001
The famous Marsden Grotto pub has been sold to a Sunderland restaurateur and can now look forward to an exciting revival.
The pub, between South Shields and Sunderland, overlooks Marsden Rock and has been empty and neglected for a year.
Now Mark Hird and his father-in-law and business partner Russell Foster plan to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds putting the neglected tourist attraction back on the map.
They aim to serve food all day in the downstairs bar and run a restaurant upstairs, making the most of the pub's cliffside location, which is thought to be unique in the UK. They hope to be up and running by December.
The lift, which takes visitors down to the Grotto entrance, is likely to be retained.
The pub closed after a row between the former tenants and owners Vaux and Pubmaster was settled out of court.
End of an era for Henry School
July 19, 2001
One hundred staff and pupils from across the generations took part in a ceremony to mark the end of an era at a Hartlepool school.
Henry Smith School in Hartlepool will become St Hild's when it reopens in September. The school will move to a single site, have a complete makeover and become a Church of England voluntary aided school.
The school has been called Henry Smith's since 1888.
Former pupil Alan Wright who became a teacher at the school and is currently a BBC Radio Cleveland presenter, made a speech at the party. Hilda Maguire, another former pupil, returned to the school where she was a pupil in the 1930's. The 81-year-old was delighted to find her name in an old school register.
There was a display of old photographs and registers during the evening get-together, which helped to stir up the old memories.
Big Meeting defies predictions
July 13, 2001
The 117th Durham Miners' Gala went ahead - once again defying predictions that the event would stop when the last deep mine in County Durham closed in 1993.
Numbers of visitors to the event have, in fact, increased steadily since then. An estimated 50,000 attended last year.
The traditional parade of banners will begin at 9.30am with bands marching through the city from the Durham area headquarters of the National Union of Mineworkers at Redhills.
The speeches at the racecourse begin at midday with trade unionists and left-wing MPs Dennis Skinner and Dr Lynne Jones guest speakers.
For many years it was traditional for the Labour Party leader to go to the Big Meeting, which in its heyday attracted 300,000 people. But, sadly, Prime Minister Tony Blair did not be attend.
July 11, 2001
Saltburn's newly-refurbished pier was officially re-opened by former Culture Minister Chris Smith last week
July 10, 2001
Buildings in the historic Headland area of Hartlepool look set to be preserved for future generations - thanks to a £1m award from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Buildings which could benefit from the Heritage Lottery Grant are:
* The remains of the 17th century Friar manor House on the site of a 13th century monastic building
* The Morison Hall- a 19th century former Methodist Chapel
* Throston Engine House which was built in the 1830s
* The late 19th century Harbour Tavern
* St Andrews Church
These plans, called the Townscape Heritage Initiative, will be carried out alongside work already underway by the North Hartlepool Partnership. The partnership is using £8m of Single Regeneration Budget money from central government to revitalise the Headland and parts of the north of Hartlepool.
It is hoped the conservation work on some of the buildings will start later this year.
July 10, 2001
Bainbridge of Newcastle, the country's oldest department store, is to break with tradition and open on a Monday from the end of this month. There are also controversial plans to change the name of the store. In 1953 the store became part of the John Lewis Partnership which has 25 stores, seven of which do not carry the group name. Now there are talks going on within the management of the company to bring these stores into line. Bainbridge is currently undergoing a facelift in the fashion department.
July 10, 2001
Darlington has been hailed the luckiest place in Britain after two punters became Lottery millionaires in the space of a week!
Digger driver Barry Moss hit the £7.5m jackpot on Saturday. His win came just a week after Anita Wynne won £3.6m.
And, remarkably, Barry's long-time partner Pat Herriott knows the other local jackpot winner! The millionaire families live a mile from each other in Darlington, where the total population is 100,000.
Barry, 57, was cooking bangers on a barbecue in the back garden of his semi-detached house when he heard of his win.
The family celebrated until 4am on Sunday and later Barry phoned his bosses at Sillars engineering in Hartlepool to tell them he was resigning.
July 8, 2001
Comedian Rowan Atkinson yesterday walked away unhurt from a high-speed motor racing smash at Croft Race Circuit near Darlington - and denied that the curse of Mr Bean had returned to haunt him.
In a scene worthy of his accident-prone alter ego character, the actor crashed his red Aston Martin V8 Zagato on the first lap of the seventh race at the meeting.
The County Durham born star was shaken but uninjured. The crash delayed the rest of the meeting he was checked by a doctor and a recovery team lifted his battered sports car off the track.
Mr Atkinson - a keen motor sports enthusiast - refused to be too downbeat about his mishap, despite having to watch his race from the trackside.
He said the brakes failed to respond but he did not think it was the curse of Mr Bean this time.
Yesterday's crash was the second near disaster for Mr Atkinson this year. In March he was flying with his family from Mombasa to Nairobi when the pilot of their twin propelled Cessna passed out at 16,000ft.
As the plane lurched violently, Mr Atkinson grabbed the controls until the pilot regained consciousness and landed the plane safely.
And in 1999, he crashed the £650,000 MacLaren which he had bought to celebrate the film success of Bean. Again, he walked away unhurt.
July 5, 2001
Torrential rain has brought chaos to many parts of Britain with flash floods and power failures. And forecasters warn there is more stormy weather ahead.
Storms lashed south-west England, west Wales and south-west Scotland on Tuesday night, while a fresh onslaught after midnight brought more chaos to Wales and the west. As much as four inches of rain fell in some places in a matter of hours, flooding streets, homes and gardens.
On Wednesday, 45,000 people in mid and south Wales and 20,000 in south-west England were without power as emergency services fought to restore supplies.
In Scotland on Wednesday many cars had to be abandoned after becoming stranded in flood waters. Many homes were also evacuated.
The five hours of thunder, lightning and rain affected much of Lanarkshire and parts of south west Scotland. South Lanarkshire Council spokesman Drew King said its emergency services were almost stretched to breaking point.
At a caravan park in the village of Llanuwchllyn near Bala in north Wales, seven caravans were washed away by the torrential rains.
Meanwhile, the North-East continues to remain dry, sunny and humid with temperatures reaching a high of 26 ºC.
July 3, 2001
Barry George has begun a life sentence for the murder of BBC TV presenter Jill Dando. The obsessive loner was found guilty by a majority verdict of 10-1 of killing Ms Dando outside her west London home on 26 April, 1999. George has always protested his innocence and will appeal against his conviction.
Share your news!
Do you have a story to tell? Click on the link below to write to me and share it!
Write to Sue
read on
Copyright (c) 2000-2001 Sue Kelly