@nlandarchives.bsky.social
Accredited archives for the county of Northumberland and Diocese of Newcastle. Housed at Woodhorn, near Ashington, and at Berwick Library. northumberlandarchives.com
📜 Just 2 spaces left! Join our WW2 Records Workshop at Northumberland Archives and uncover life on the Home Front — from wartime work to air raids & Civil Defence.
🔍 Discover what the records reveal and learn how to research your own stories: tinyurl.com/52fkfa4z
We've just had a lot of fun making a short video about Northumberland place names...
unfortunately, it doesn't seem to post so well here. Go and have a look at our other social media accounts (FB, IG, TikTok) to see it in all its glory!
How do you pronounce Cambois?
Just a few tickets left for our talk on Thursday:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1556282134...
Bethany will be talking about the archives that are held by the Vindolanda Trust and the work she does to preserve the documentation created around this amazing Roman site.
⌨ Read our latest WW2 Project blog on the Mitford Welcome Home Fund (1944–46): tinyurl.com/3mw5xpb9. Discover how Mitford community raised money with whist drives, dances & raffles to thank returning servicemen & women after WW2. 📧 Sign up to our WW2 newsletter: eepurl.com/jlGMpM #HeritageFund 🤞
09.09.2025 08:08 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
📢Join us for a Berwick Heritage Open Day talk by Phil Rowett: Put That Light Out – Wartime Law in the Berwick Area 🕖 Sun 14 Sept, 7pm (online). Discover how locals dodged wartime laws, ending in a 1946 stolen ambulance stopped by police gunfire! 🎟️ Book: tinyurl.com/55hs2ecw
08.09.2025 13:46 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
📢 Join us for our first WW2 Talk: Conscientious Objectors in North East England with Stuart Anderson. Explore the hidden wartime experiences of conscientious objectors on the Home Front. 🎟️ Book via Eventbrite: tinyurl.com/s8z9znuj 📧 Sign up for our WW2 Project Newsletter: eepurl.com/jlGMpM
27.08.2025 09:28 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
🎺Heritage Open Days announcement🎺
We're going to be bringing #TheArchivesJob to Woodhorn Museum!
13 Sep 2025
The escape room and museum entrance will be free, but booking for the escape room is ESSENTIAL:
www.heritageopendays.org.uk/submission-e...
A poster advertising the exhibition featuring a black and white image showing 4 soldiers in their Far East uniform for hot weather.
As part of our WW2 project, Berwick Record Office has created an exhibition, displaying this weekend Friday 15 - Sunday 17, exploring North Northumberland’s contribution to the Far East Campaign. The exhibition will be on display at St Andrew’s Wallace Green Church in Berwick.📍
12.08.2025 07:56 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A shaded black-out lamp used during the war is displayed in a cabinet.
A woman looks at an exhibition board about wartime food.
Have you had the chance to see our new WW2 Home Front Exhibition, exploring the stories of ordinary Northumbrians, at County Hall? The exhibition uncovers both tragic & courageous stories from Northumberland Archives. Follow our social media to stay up to date with our WW2 project. 📣
08.08.2025 14:23 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Jo and Amy chilling outside of the van. the van is decorated with a muti-covered livery and has a the "Archives Job" logo on the side, over the window.
Are you going to be at #DCDC25 next week? @durham-university.bsky.social
There for #HistoryDay on Tuesday?
Stop by our escape van and say hello!
#archives #GLAM #escaperoom #archivesjob
And you can view the BTs online via Family Search.
15.07.2025 10:04 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Methodist registers at Northumberland Archives:
northumberlandarchives.com/docs/METHODI...
Presbyterian and Congregational:
northumberlandarchives.com/docs/PRESBYT...
Ah! The beauty [complexity] of the varied administrational boundaries of English counties/dioceses!
Here's a list of the parish registers that we hold, with their covering dates:
www.northumberlandarchives.com/docs/ANGLICA...
We are recruiting!
Are you a qualified archivist who is looking for an 18-month, full-time position?
Would you like to work in a stunning location with a wide range of collections? Enjoy being part of a team and talking up archives to a wide audience?
www.northeastjobs.org.uk/job/Archivis...
We've just released some extra tickets for our escape van!
If you're going to Allendale Show (16 Aug) or Glendale Show (25 Aug), we'll be there too!
Booking via eventbrite:
Allendale Show
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1415124047...
Glendale Show
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1461732935...
Fancy a bit of #summer reading?
But bored of the latest #romantasy?
Why not try our manorial records blog series?!
northumberlandarchives.com/2025/04/29/b...
northumberlandarchives.com/2025/06/03/w...
northumberlandarchives.com/2025/06/12/m...
Announcing our latest exhibition!
Art Deco 100
Celebrating art deco design around Northumberland
County Hall,
Morpeth
Now until 1 Aug 2025
Have you been to the Gathering?
Do you have any memories or photographs that you would like to share?
Please feel free to add them to this thread! 😀👍
Collage of documents from Northumberland Archives. NRO 7791/2/5 Colour photograph of The Morpeth Gathering, Morpeth, Northumberland, showing the Mayor greeting the horsemen who have ridden through the town. NRO 10563/1 Extracts from ‘Northumbrian Anthology No.3’ - ‘When we were Young - N. Thompson’, ‘Childhood Memories – Nan Chrisp’, ‘Wor Delight – R.A. Wood’
At Northumberland Archives we have a small collection of programmes and posters from some of the early festivals, as well as the 'Northumbrian Anthology No.3’ - a collection of dialect competition entries from the gathering held in 1973.
📜🖼️📖
The Gathering has taken place annually since 1968, celebrating the folk traditions of Northumberland.
Where else can you hear fiddles, accordions and the Northumbrian smallpipes, as well as watch clog dancers, hear regional dialect reciting and get involved in local crafts, all in one weekend! 🎻💃
Collage of documents from Northumberland Archives about the Morpeth Gathering. 📸 NRO 8134/1 poster from the 10th Morpeth Gathering along with programme particulars for the 7th gathering and poster imagery of the ‘Morpeth Gadgie’. NRO 7791/2/5 Textual description of Morpeth Gathering
🌼 This weekend marks the 57th Northumbrian Gathering in Morpeth – time to dust off those Morris dancing bells and Northumbrian bagpipes!
www.northumbriana.org.uk/gathering/in...
Short 🧵follows...
#archives #history #dialect #northumberland #bagpipes
Do you know a scarlet woman?
Are you one yourself?
Read about one of our recent accessions: The Scarlet Women newsletter.
northumberlandarchives.com/2025/04/07/s...
That's us!
It was great working with Adam and we've come away with so many ideas!
Watch this space...
#archives #dragons
What links the highland clearances and a Northumbrian stately home?
Prof Annie Tindley's blog post contains the answers...
northumberlandarchives.com/2025/03/31/a...
#archives @newcastleuni.bsky.social
Blog post from our archivist, Chris, about the work that he's been doing on the Hindmarsh photographic collection.
northumberlandarchives.com/2025/03/26/p...
#archives #history #photography #C20th
Northumberland Archives at Woodhorn: the study centre. This is usually where researchers sit and peruse documents. This morning puzzling took over! The puzzles are laid out on the map table and desks ready to be tested.
A four-digit lock in focus. The rest of the puzzle is a sheet next to the lock - if you look closely you can see some of the creepy crawlies that eat archives on the sheet!
A set of tally sticks in the foreground with a set of coloured paper cups placed upside down on the desk behind them. The paper cups have roman numerals written on the side.
In the foreground is a tangle of pink Heritage Open Days bunting. In the background is the archive study centre desk which has a series of photographs stuck to it for the purposes of this puzzle...
The puzzles for the Disrupt the Archives escape room are coming together!
Playtesting is revealing where to tweak the puzzles and where players might need a bit more help.
But, is it ethical to use your colleagues as guinea-pigs?
Asking for a friend...
#archives
Our most recently recruited members of staff have just written a blog about what it's like working at Northumberland Archives.
Do check it out. (It's worth it just for the photos!)
northumberlandarchives.com/2025/03/01/n...
#archives #newbies #careers #history
A hat helps the characterisation of a gang boss!
Using Micro:Bits to programme potential puzzles.
Disrupt the Archives project is spending all week developing our escape room.
Today: electronics supported by NCC IT staff AND filming with November Club theatre company.
NRO 11029 – Mary Hannington is photographed walking down a street in Newcastle. She is wearing a long light-coloured overcoat which is belted at the waist. She has on a cloche hat, a scarf, dark gloves and dark low-heeled shoes. She has a handbag under her arm and is carrying several parcels. There are passers-by heading the opposite direction to the right of the picture and the window of a shop on the left. A double decker bus (or tram?) can be seen in the background to the right.
Picture of a page of Mary Hannington's diary (NRO 11029). Monday Oct 30. Small photographs of actors have been pasted at the top of the page. Mary's diary entry is hand written below. Part of it reads: “Tonight went to the Queen’s to see ‘I was a spy’... The film was jolly good, production and acting, splendid. Madeleine Canoll was good also Conrad Veidt, Herbert Marshall, Edmund Gwenn (what a canny Burgomaster!) and Anthony Bushell made a bonny German secret service agent – handsome and callous.”
On the release of the new Bridget Jones film, we wanted to share some more of Mary Hannington’s diaries:
She saw the film ‘I was a spy’ and wrote "Edmund Gwenn (what a canny Burgomaster!) and Anthony Bushell made a bonny German secret service agent – handsome and callous.”
See alt text for more
Photograph of Mary Hannington (1914-2003). Mary is perching on the railing of a boat at sea. She is looking windswept and fabulous. The is wearing a dark pencil skirt and a light jumper, topped with a scarf tied over her hair. She is next to a lifeboat which has a lifeboug attached to it. The lifebouy has the name "Sandhill" visible along the top.
![Photographs from the Evening Chronicle of the production of "Ruddigore" that Mary attended in 1935 and wrote about in her diary. She wasn't very complimentary of the newspaper photographer, writing "I could have done better myself with my brownie [camera]".](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:fypgg5l3cuwgygjprri662yy/bafkreieps27i2q764ukzuxt7tcdw25qo3pew6wo6prtij6po4nsqahxnry@jpeg)
Photographs from the Evening Chronicle of the production of "Ruddigore" that Mary attended in 1935 and wrote about in her diary. She wasn't very complimentary of the newspaper photographer, writing "I could have done better myself with my brownie [camera]".
Scan of Mary's diary. (NRO 11029) Mary has a humorous tone of voice, shown in this diary entry, remarking on the actors and local coverage of a production of ‘Ruddigore’.
Happy Valentine's Day! ❤️
Forget #bridgetjonesdiary- we have the diaries of Mary Hannington.
Entry from 1935: local amdram production, including a certain Billy in the cast...
"Wish, by the way, I could keep my thoughts away from that young man because he’s a silly a** – birds of a feather though!!"
