LOOKING back to the week that was August 12 to August 18, five years ago...

A DALES road closed since torrential rainfall at the end of July 2019 caused a landslip and weakened a bridge reopened two days ahead of schedule.

The B6270, which links Grinton and Reeth with the Richmond area, suffered severe damage when floods hit the region on July 30 and 31, 2019.

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One part became impassable when a landslip caused a section of road to collapse away.

Further along the route, a bridge across Cogden Beck was left severely damaged.

North Yorkshire County Council’s bridge engineers and contractors Hinko worked to get the road reopened as soon as possible.

The repair operation involved digging away the landslide, laying new road foundations and then resurfacing and white-lining the route.

Where Cogden Bridge North was damaged, a temporary structure was trucked to the site and new stretch of access road added to reconnect it to the B6270.

Steel tubing was brought in to channel Cogden Beck safely beneath the new crossing.

North Yorkshire County Council’s corporate director of environmental services, David Bowe, said: “It has been a huge operation to repair the damage caused by such severe weather, but we have been acutely aware of the importance of this road in connecting communities in the upper Dales with nearby towns and services and have pulled out all the stops to make sure this happened as quickly as possible.”

First to cross the bridge was Andrew Atkin, landlord of The Bridge Inn at Grinton.

He said; “It’s a great weight off our minds– businesses are now officially open in Swaledale – this puts us back on the map.”

A man was set to run the equivalent of eight Parkrun courses over 24 hours in 2019 in memory of his wife, who died from early onset dementia.

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John Hirst, from Stockton, lost his wife Pat in 2017 after she was diagnosed with Frontotemporal Dementia aged 66.

On September 6, 2019, also World Alzheimers Month, Mr Hirst turned 66 years, seven months and five days old – the exact age reached by his wife – and wanted to commemorate the day by completing a challenge to raise funds and awareness for Alzheimer’s Research UK.

Beginning at 10am from Workington, Mr Hirst completed each course along the A66 which was used as a Parkrun.

He stopped at Whinlatter Forest, Keswick, Penrith, Darlington South Park, Billingham Juniors, Tees Barrage, and Albert Park in Middlesbrough before completing the final leg of his challenge 24 hours later at the official Parkrun in Redcar at 9am on September 7, 2019.

Mr Hirst was aiming to raise £1,000 to help fund dementia research in the North-East.

Thousands of eager A-level students in the North-East returned to their schools and colleges to find out their results.

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Students from across County Durham, Teesside and North Yorkshire, celebrated their results. In 2019, the North-East was the only region which saw an increase in the number of A grades achieved at A-level.

The Joint Council for Qualifications, which works with the country’s major qualification providers, said other regions saw a decrease in the number of those achieving A grades, compared to last year.

In the North-East, the pass rate of A-level students receiving A* to E grades was also 98.3 percent.