Tony Henderson on a tale of two villages

A forgotten community which existed for more than 50 years on isolated moorland in Northumberland has been brought back to life in a major heritage project.

The Newcastle upon Tyne and Northumberland sanatorium opened in 1907 on the moors above the neighbouring North Tyne villages of Barrasford and Gunnerton.

It treated victims of tuberculosis at a time when 60,000 people a year were dying from the disease in England and Wales and the annual mortality rate in Newcastle alone was nearly 600.

We dip into the Journal's archives to get into the festive spirit with some Christmas images from Northumberland's recent past.

Send your seasonal images of the county to northumberland@ncjmedia.co.uk if you would like to share them on our community sites.

Relatives of First World War servicemen can now find out more about their heroic ancestors.

The Army service records of more than two million British soldiers who served during the "war to end all wars" have been published online for the first time.

A variety of information concerning all aspects of the army careers of those who completed their duty or were killed in action include the soldier's name, date and place of birth, address, next-of-kin, former occupation, marital status and medical history.

Data on John Hedley, from Gunnerton, Barrasford, Northumberland, is just one set of thousands of records now available (pictured below).

A film-maker's quest to reunite classmates from more than 50 years ago is tantalisingly close to completion - after an appeal in Saturday's Journal uncovered two of the remaining four he had been unable to trace.

Another former student from the 1957-58 general agriculture course at Kirkley Hall college in Northumberland also emailed reunion organiser David Taylor, 69, from his home in Scotland at the weekend.

That has left the Emmy award-winning documentary maker and former Journal writer with just one person - Jenny Dodds - to find in order to have a full house.

A journalist turned Emmy award-winning film maker is trying to track down his Kirkley Hall classmates from more than 50 years ago for a reunion.

Former Journal writer David Taylor, 69, wants to contact the other members of his general agriculture course who studied at the Northumberland College campus in 1957-8.

The general agriculture class of 1957 outside Kirkley Hall. David Taylor is pictured in the back row, seventh from left

Mr Taylor, who worked for a string of publications including Farming Express before moving into TV where he produced Farming Outlook, is organising the reunion at Kirkley next month.

Hexham bills itself as a historic market town but that description hardly does justice to its many attractions.

The centre of Hexham is dominated by its abbey, which dates largely from the 11th Century though it was rebuilt significantly in the 19th.

As we shiver our way through this week, we should count ouselves lucky that the weather hasn't been as bad as in February 1929 when the Tyne froze at Hexham.

Close by is the Old Gaolcorrect, one of the first purpose-built jails in England and a Grade I Scheduled Monument that now houses a museum dedicated to the history of the Border Reivers.

Old girls from the former Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Hexham got together for a reunion on Saturday.

It was the twenty-sixth time the former pupils of the school, which closed in the late 1960s, have gathered in the old hall, now the site of Hexham Middle School.

Organiser of the event, Sylvia Giles, 83, of Low Fell, Gateshead, left the school in 1941 and over the last few months she searched tirelessly for former students to come to the event.