Reports from monthly meetings
May 2025 Meeting Report On Monday 12th May, following a brief AGM, Moira Kilkenny introduced a talk on ‘Angels of the North Volume 2’, a collection of essays on notable women of the north east which she has co-written with Joyce Quin. Joyce then went on to talk in detail about some of these women who,…
April 2025 Meeting Report This month we welcomed Liz Finch, National Trust volunteer, to speak on ‘The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Seaton Delaval Hall’. She explained that the Delavals originated from Normandy. They were gifted their land by William the Conqueror, a reward for their support at the Battle of Hastings. They…
March 2025 Meeting Report Bill Openshaw presented his talk, based on his book ‘To the Call of Bugles – A History of the Percy Tenantry Volunteers 1798 – 1814’, dressed in full Light Infantry regalia! Surely a first for Warkworth History Society. Local tenants of the Percy family, including many volunteers from Warkworth, were called…
February 2025 Meeting Report ‘There’s more to a needle than meets the eye!’ This was the intriguing title of Barry Mead’s talk on Monday 3rd February. Barry was the former curator of the Forge Mill Needle Museum in Redditch, centre of the needle making industry from the early C17th. Needles and pins of all kinds, from sewing…
January 2025 Meeting Report Our opening speaker for 2025 was local structural engineer Ian Hume. Whilst employed by English Heritage he was involved in the refurbishment and structural renovation of many iconic structures nationwide. He spoke about four in particular, namely the Iron Bridge in Shropshire, the Tunnel under the Thames, the Crystal Palace, and…
December 2024 Meeting Report For the last meeting of 2024 writer, archaeologist and woodsman, Max Adams, spoke about ‘The Museum of the Wood Age’. There can, of course, be no museum in the normal sense, since wooden objects cannot survive as stone, bronze, iron and other metals do. And yet we were shown how the…
November Meeting Report On Monday 4th November Eleanor George treated us to a very thorough and detailed account of the Bainbridges ‘from Department Store to Eshott Hall’.Many of those present remembered well Bainbridge’s department store in Newcastle before it became part of the John Lewis group. Its founder was Emerson Muschamp Bainbridge, born 1817 into…
October Meeting Report War, plague, monastic life – who knew that cheese could play such an important part in world history? Well, by the end of Sue Brown’s talk on ‘6000 years of cheese history’ those who crowded into the Memorial Hall on Monday 7th October certainly did. We were even treated to a tasting…
On 13th May we welcomed Belinda Booth to speak about the history of our hall, part of a Heritage Project which started in 2019. The story begins in 1866. Adam and Robert Howitt were two of the original founders when it was known as the New Church following a division in the church on the…
On Monday 8th April Chris Tipple spoke on the topic of ‘Lord Armstrong of Cragside – Hero or Villain?’ The son of a coal merchant, William was born in 1810 near Carlisle and brought up in Newcastle. He was apprenticed into the legal profession but his main passions remained science and mechanics. In 1847 he…
Woodhorn is well known for its mining museum. It is also the home of Northumberland South Archives. On Monday 4th March archivist Sarah Littlefear introduced us to some of the work carried out there. The collection contains a history of Northumberland’s people, places and events, in the form of books, photographs, documents, film and newspapers….
For the February meeting Chairman Richard Booth welcomed local author Rt. Rev. Dr. Stephen Platten to speak about the history of the Shell County Guides.The Shell name originates from the late 19th century when Marcus Samuel decided to name the shipping company after the seashells he brought back with him from the Far East. By…
