Four amazing historic structures?

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…

The Museum of the Wood Age

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…

The Bainbridges – from Department Store to Eshott Hall

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…

6000 years of cheese history

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…

An Introduction to Northumberland Archives

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….