Girls from Tynedale Gymnastics Club were given a lift after a Northumberland-based company gave them £250 towards new equipment.

The club, which operates at Prudhoe WestWorld and Wentworth Leisure Centre in Hexham, caters for more than 400 boys and girls aged between 18 months and 18 years old.

Paul Armstrong from SCA Hygiene in Prudhoe and the Tynedale Gymnastics Club squad, pictured with head coach Gayle Crowell

The donation from SCA Hygiene Products in Prudhoe has helped the club to purchase new floor mats to create a 12mx12m area for the young gymnasts to train on.

A THIEF stole silverware used in holy communion at historic Hexham Abbey in Northumberland.

Craig Hand went to the abbey with his young son under the premise of lighting a candle and taking part in morning prayers.

But the drug addict stole valuable pieces of silver used in religious ceremonies and then tried to sell them. Hand then took his young son with him to a toy shop in Hexham and stole three train sets which he later tried to pass off as family heirlooms.

Michael Connor uploaded this scene to JournalLive, showing Beaufront Castle near Sandhoe dusted with snow.

Send your wintery photos to northumberland@ncjmedia.co.uk

Pensioner Gordon Moore has been given the all-clear by surgeons who discovered he had miraculously regrown his skull.

The 72-year-old, from Hexham, who was told by astonished medics the entire section of skull-bone from his eye to his ear and backwards to the top of his head, had regenerated 50 years after it was smashed in a car accident, now wants the metal plate back for Christmas.

Neurologists at Newcastle Hospitals have been so pleased with the great-grandfather's progress, they have discharged him entirely from their care.

A fleet of specially designed "play vans" will be hitting the road in Northumberland next month as part of a pioneering new service for children and families.

The project - involving four vans which each contain toys, books, play equipment and internet access - is said by the county council to be one of only a handful operating across the country.

The vans include ramps to make them fully accessible and also feature retractable awnings and sliding doors, which allow them to be used for children's play sessions as well as information points for parents and carers.

Family history buffs in Northumberland are turning to the web.

Northumberland County Council produced a video (below) to raise awareness of the facilities available to people wanting to know more about their ancestors.

It was uploaded onto internet video sharing site YouTube and has got more than 12,000 hits.

Waste bosses are urging Northumberland residents to think green this Christmas.

Northumberland County Council and SITA UK will recycle Christmas trees, cards, wrappings and drink containers.

Household waste recycling centres across the county will be open every day except Christmas Day and New Year's Day, and Christmas trees can be taken along at any time and recycled with other green waste.

A Northumberland author and personal development trainer has seen his latest book take the charts by storm after being plugged by Chris Evans.

Michael Heppell, 42, who lives at Wall in Northumberland, was invited on to the DJ's Radio Two Show on Tuesday to promote his book Flip It - How to get the best out of everything. The DJ said he had bought 10 copies and read the October release in a day.

He made Flip It, which gives guidance on how to get the best out of every situation, his Christmas book recommendation and urged listeners to buy it for everyone they know as a present, claiming it would go on to sell millions.

Parents of a North East victim of the Lockerbie bombing say the long-running campaign for a public inquiry into the atrocity will continue, although optimism is fading that it will ever happen.

Alistair Berkley, 29, from Northumberland was among the 270 people who died when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over the Scottish town in December 1988.

His elderly parents, Barrie and Jean Berkley of Sandhoe, Hexham, are leading members of the UK Families Flight 103 Group, which was set up in the wake of the terrorist outrage.

Two months ago the group handed in a letter at 10 Downing Street asking for a meeting with Gordon Brown to discuss its renewed calls for a full independent inquiry into the bombing.

Hexham Farmers' Market has been recognised as the best in the North.

It will now go forward to the national finals of the annual competition run by the National Farmers' Retail and Markets' Association (Farma).

It is the second time in three years that the market has made it to this stage.