Posts by venue: Social History

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

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

First World War Stories: A headmaster’s view of the War’s first months

On 4 August 1914 Britain entered the First World War. Events moved swiftly over the following months and I thought it would be interesting to take a look at them through the eyes of someone who lived through those turbulent… Read more

Angel

A couple of us volunteers at the Laing Art Gallery are recording details of a large archive of material relating to the Tyneside Victorian artist Ralph Hedley. Recently I came across two photos of a carved angel. The angel is… Read more

First World War Stories: The Birtley Belgians

I’m currently working on the ‘Workshop of the World’ project to catalogue the historic records of Vickers Armstrong and its predecessor companies. This project will make thousands of fascinating documents available to the public for the very first time thanks… Read more