News from the Choppington area is now covered by a revamped Bedlington community website from The Journal.

Visit www.journallive.co.uk/bedlington to take a look at the improved pages, including a new layout, more useful local information, an events calendar, news from the wider county and an interactive map.

These pages are no longer being updated.

Photos shared by members of our Northumberland group on the Flickr photo-sharing website. Click on a photo to see the caption and to view it in a larger size.

You can join the Flickr group to share your own local photos, or send them to northumberland@ncjmedia.co.uk.

Bill Carnaby of Newbiggin Photography Group added this photo to our Northumberland group on the photo-sharing website Flickr, showing the steam train the Tornado coming round the bend from Choppington towards Morpeth on the old North East mineral line.

More photos from Newbiggin Photography Group »

Send your photos to northumberland@ncjmedia.co.uk or join the Flickr group to share them on this site.

Family history buffs in Northumberland are turning to the web.

Northumberland County Council produced a video (below) to raise awareness of the facilities available to people wanting to know more about their ancestors.

It was uploaded onto internet video sharing site YouTube and has got more than 12,000 hits.

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.

Peter Troughear of Ashington sent in this photo of the River Wansbeck, where the scene looks a lot more summery than it will do now.

Send your photos for publication to northumberland@ncjmedia.co.uk

A video has been launched by Northumberland County Council to help it meet demanding Government recycling targets.

The tutorial video (watch below) shows Northumberland County Council's new recycling centre in action and helps residents understand what can and can't be put into the recycling bin.

In Northumberland the council is responsible for collecting waste from more than 140,000 households as well as thousands of business premises.

The Journal's photographic archives provide a fascinating glimpse into the past of Northumberland pit villages Stakeford, Choppington and West Sleekburn.

In its heyday, Choppington was one of the big three mid-Northumberland collieries, making up the C in the ABC of Ashington, Bomarsund and Choppington.

The Journal has a picture from a VE Day party in the village in 1945, and also a sadly undated photograph from some time in the 1960s showing the newly-opened nursery school at the Choppington Social Welfare Centre.

A selection of some of the images added so far to our Your Place Northumberland group on the photo-sharing website Flickr.

If you've been out and about at events or scenic places in the county with a camera, why not join the group and add your own?

You can view the group, and more pictures by these photographers, at www.flickr.com/groups/northumberlandcommunities/.

Photos you would like to share on the Journal Extra pictures page can also be sent to northumberland@ncjmedia.co.uk.

Pupils from Ringway First School in Guidepost danced around a traditional Maypole at Beamish Museum before staging a spring festival procession to crown a May King and Queen yesterday.

The dancers had been rehearsing for weeks to perfect the complicated interwoven patterns for the display.