Some of the UK's hardest men wowed crowds with an awesome display of strength yesterday.

Allendale played host to the North qualifier for England's Ultimate Strongest Man competition, sponsored by The Journal's sister paper The Sunday Sun.

Champion weightlifters from across the country competed alongside local men in the Market Square.

A presentation on plans to revamp the region's hospitals takes place in Northumberland next week.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is proposing a new specialist emergency care hospital near Cramlington for people living in Northumberland and North Tyneside, improvements to Wansbeck and North Tyneside general hospitals and rebuilding community hospitals in Berwick and Haltwhistle.

A presentation on the plans takes place at a meeting of Warkworth Parish Council on Thursday, June 4 at 6.30pm in the Memorial Hall on Castle Street.

A blood sport swoop saw three men arrested in Northumberland.

The Operation Seal inquiry was set up jointly between Northumbria Police and the RSPCA's special operations unit. It followed an intelligence-led operation into badger baiting and cock fighting in Northumberland.

The operation also investigated the baiting of other protected animals with dogs.

This week's trip into The Journal's photographic library takes in images of Allendale and Allenheads captured by our photographers over the past 100 years.

The importance of farming and traditional rural skills in preserving the North East's countryside - and to bringing in the tourists' pounds - is being taken to a wider audience. Karen Dent discovers why our 'natural' environment is anything but.

Rolling hills and heather-covered moors are among the many attractions that the North East holds for visitors. But this stunning rural landscape isn't there by chance - it's something that needs to be managed and maintained.

That was the message for visitors to this week's Northumberland County Show, where the National Farmers Union (NFU) used the opportunity to demonstrate the importance of upland farming and traditional skills such as dry stone walling.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of Class A drugs were seized in a year-long crackdown by police vying to rid rural Northumberland communities of drug barons.

The Journal can today reveal the scale of the drug problem that plagues the county's isolated countryside, with a massive haul of drugs confiscated by police specialists.

Earlier this year a top judge said drug dealing gangs were targeting rural villages in sophisticated cannabis production operations.

Bosses at Northumberland's new super council are being recommended to stick with its controversial 0845 single telephone number.

County hall chiefs have been urged by campaigners both locally and nationally to change the 0845 6006400 number, which has been provided since April 1 for all people who need to contact the unitary authority.

Rubbish police could confiscate bins if householders fill them with the wrong items.

Northumberland County Council hopes to crack down on contamination in recycling wheelie bins using hard-line tactics.

Householders who repeatedly ignore warnings to stop throwing waste food, nappies or dirty items into the bin which is supposed to be for dry, clean, recyclable materials, will have their bin confiscated.

Allendale 1st XI V Haydon Bridge. Haydon Bridge won by 6 wickets

Match report sent in by Gareth Mews of Allendale CC

The nature of Allendale's performances and their apparent willingness to surrender winning
opportunities and accept defeat are beginning to become as notoriously soggy as their outfield.

Squally showers blew in and out, the covers were pulled on and off and yet the only direction that Allendale heads looked was down.

A Tyne Valley man is celebrating two years of providing a free handyman service to people in the west of Northumberland.

Sandy Johnston works as a handyman for Northumberland Stars, a not-for- profit social enterprise that provides a free handyman service for anyone aged over 60 and for people with disabilities.