A music company run by a Corbridge man aims to turn the tables on the X Factor by making one of its losing finalists the Christmas number one.

Lancashire soul singer Laura White was knocked out of the ITV talent contest two weeks ago after being cited as one of the favourites to win.

Three of the four judges, including Newcastle-born Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole, voted her off the show after she and fellow contestant Ruth Lorenzo received the lowest number of public phone votes.

People in Northumberland are getting good adult social care, according to a new national inspection.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection has given Northumberland's adult services department a two-star rating, and says it has "excellent capacity" for improvement.

Hadrian's Wall is set for nearly 50,000 new visitors after an ad campaign in London.

Heritage bosses last night said the publicity drive in the capital had made it the North East's most recognised attraction.

People were questioned as they emerged from Tube stations in London before and after a marketing campaign woven around the major British Museum exhibition on the Emperor Hadrian, which ran for three months until October 24.

A Tynedale tree nursery is helping North East students prepare for their future careers by hosting hands-on visits to its tree plantations.

Around 30 students from Kirkley Hall College in Ponteland have been spending time at the Trees Please nursery in Corbridge, to get practical ideas and experience about tree establishment and production techniques.

The Northumberland Theatre Company will be bringing its latest production to Tynedale as part of a big national tour.

Straw Headed Peter by award winning writer Mike Kenny is a re-telling of classic cautionary tales written Dr Heinrigh Hoffman more than 150 years ago. It features a talented cast including Stephanie Butler, Nigel Collins and Philip Oakland.

One of the world's most successful dotcom entrepreneurs is backing a fledgling Tynedale firm which aims to help punters beat the credit crunch this Christmas.

Sean Phelan, whose online mapping tool Multimap.com was sold to Microsoft for £24.4m last year, has invested in a new internet business based in Northumberland.

Wishli.st allows people to make a Christmas list of presents they would like to receive which can be accessed online by friends and family, who can then buy or put towards items.

Stocksfield Player Alex Swan is a man of many talents. A teacher by day, he has not only written the Players' latest offering but is also directing the production. And, as if that weren't enough, he is playing the lead role too.

Multi-tasking Alex, who has previously written for the BBC, wrote Sow Tears, Reap Joy especially for the Stocksfield Players, with its inaugural performance tonight.

Alex says: "I really wanted to do something for the Players and help raise their profile.

The success of this year's Northumberland County Show has benefited a number of local charities.

With 26,500 visitors going through the gates, the Tynedale Agricultural Society has been able to donate thousands of pounds to charities and donate 10 free trade spaces at next year's event.

Heritage high-flyers have plotted over 2,700 previously unrecorded historic features in around Hadrian's Wall.

English Heritage's aerial survey and investigation team has studied the Wall and its setting 15km either side of the structure.

Team members have examined 30,500 aerial photographs taken in the last 60 years, many of them by the RAF in the 1930s-40s.

A church group has raised a staggering £15,000 to help terminally-ill youngsters in their last weeks of life.

The North East Ladies Methodist Church group spent the last year raising the cash for Josie's Dragonfly Trust, a charity set-up in memory of inspirational cancer victim Josie Grove, from Corbridge.

The group's president Jane Dixon, from Hexham, chose the trust as their nominated charity for the year.