LOOKING back to the week of September 4 to September 10, ten years ago.

A COUNTY town already reeling after public sector job losses was rocked by a decision to close the oldest prison in the country.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling announced on September 4, 2013, that HMP Northallerton, which inspectors had graded as being among the country's best prisons, was among four jails that would close by March 2014 to be replaced by a "super-prison" in North Wales.

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He said: "This is the latest part of our plan to modernise our prisons, bring down costs, but to make sure that by the next election we still have access to more prison places than we inherited in 2010."

The closures mean 1,400 prison places will be lost in England and Wales, while the new £250m prison in Wrexham will hold more than 2,000 inmates.

The Prison Office Association's (POA) North-East and Yorkshire spokesman Terry Fullerton said: "This decision makes no sense, as Northallerton is not in disrepair and is a high-performing centre."

Torrential rain wreaked havoc in parts of the North East on September 6, 2013.

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The owners of two cars had a lucky escape after their vehicles were washed into floodwaters and up to 60 people were evacuated from their homes in Redcar.

The most dramatic incident came at the foot of Saltburn Bank, in east Cleveland, at about 7.30pm, after part of a bridge was washed away.

At one point, it led to the RNLI and the police helicopter being scrambled after it was feared that people may have been washed from the cars into the sea. This later proved to be unfounded.

A bingo-playing grandmother went to bed thinking she had won £120 in an online game in the early hours of Saturday, September 7, 2013.

But, 18 hours later, Alison Bradbury discovered she had actually scooped a jackpot of £66,508 for her 5p stake.

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Sixty-year-old Mrs Bradbury, from Castle Eden, near Peterlee, County Durham, only went on her home computer because she was struggling to sleep.

Glad to have landed a house, she happily went to sleep expecting her account to have benefited by £120.

She only realised she had landed the jackpot when Ladbrokes contacted her to pass on its congratulations.