All posts by administrator

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

The Mackreths and Thunder Thursday 1837-style

The artist Harriet Mackreth lived with her family at 3 High Swinburne Place in Newcastle, just off Westgate Road. The house held her parents, her two older sisters and her brother, while the 1841 census also mentions two female servants… Read more

First World War Party in Pilgrim Street, Newcastle

There was an absolute craze for street parties in Newcastle in August 1919 to celebrate the signing of the Peace Treaty on June 28th – the official end of the First World War. There were a few ‘Peace’ and ‘Victory’… Read more