Posts by date: October 2014

Did your ancestors own shares?

I’m pleased to report that work is progressing well on the ‘Workshop of the World’ project to catalogue our Vickers Armstrong archives collection. I’ve recently been working on the Executive records of Sir W.G. Armstrong Whitworth and Company Ltd, which… Read more

Ebola and Plague in Newcastle in 1636

We’ve all become aware of the recent awful effects of the Ebola virus in West Africa and its impact on the people of that area.  A range of responses have been put in place to try and help those affected and… Read more

Family memories – a soldier’s Great War sketchbook

Recently, one of our visitors has shown us some interesting First World War drawings by his grandfather, Private James McGarrigle. A coal miner at Seaton Delaval before he joined up, Private McGarrigle was a soldier with 7th Northumberland Fusiliers Observation… Read more

The engraving of John Hodgson

H. F. S. Mackreth produced the miniature of John Hodgson for inclusion in Hodgson’s work ‘The History of Northumberland’. This meant an engraving had to be produced from it so that multiple copies could be made for the books. An… Read more

Washington’s changing landscape

I was recently looking through photographs from our Washington Development Corporation collection to find images for a new Flickr set.  The thing that really struck me was how dramatically the Washington landscape changed in the late 1960s and 1970s. Fifty years ago, when Washington… Read more