Archive for the ‘Heritage’ Category

25
Aug
2011

A famous face explores his heritage at City Library

An update from the Heritage Service Manager, Kath Cassidy.

A couple of months ago I mentioned that we’d had camera crews in the library and a visit from a mystery celebrity. I can now reveal that the celebrity was none other than comedian Alan Carr. Alan was in the region filming for a forthcoming episode of the BBC programme ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ He spent an entire day in the heritage section and as you can imagine his visit caused great excitement. Alan was lovely, very friendly and extremely funny, exactly as he appears on television. We were a little disappointed to find out that the library sequence will not be screened when the programme is broadcast, but having said that, it was still a very enjoyable and rewarding experience.

City Libraries Manager, David Fay, with library staff and chatty man himself, Alan Carr.

We’ve also been busy putting together a packed programme of autumn events. These include a range of free events to celebrate Heritage Open Days. Find out more about Heritage Open Days.

We are also organising a number of activities including an archive film show, guided walks around the suburbs, a look at our Newcastle United archive, talks about our industrial heritage and an exhibition featuring the work of Thomas Bewick. View the Newcastle Libraries events calendar.

Kath Cassidy
Heritage Service Manager

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4
Aug
2011

Latest staff blog – news from the Heritage team

1951 FA Cup Final
Image Courtesy of Newcastle United Archive: Paul Joannou official historian to Newcastle United.

As part of our regional Played in Tyne and Wear partnership, we’ve just opened a major sporting exhibition on level 6 of City Library.

Download the exhibition catalogue. (PDF, 1.17MB)

The exhibition uses archive material to illustrate the history of sport in the region and includes pigeon racing, rowing, golf, and cricket. Of course an exhibition about regional sport wouldn’t be complete without reference to the beautiful game so we’ve worked closely with  Mick Edmondson from the Back Page who has generously loaned us a great deal of fascinating material that charts the history of Newcastle United. The exhibition runs until 30 October 2011 and is a must see destination for sports fans of all ages.

In my last blog I mentioned that the History Club had been selected as one of three finalists in the prestigious CILIP Libraries Change Lives award. Earlier in the month, along with colleagues who run the club on a weekly basis, I attended the CILIP conference at De Havilland University in Hatfield to collect our certificate and a cheque for £1,500. The prize money will be a great help in adding value to the programme of club activities and we now plan to take members on a number of short excursions to places of historic significance in and around the City, something that we know they really enjoy.

We are currently planning our autumn events programme – so look out for details of forthcoming heritage events in the next edition of the Page Turner newsletter.

Kath Cassidy
Heritage Service Manager

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27
Jun
2011

Staff blog – news from the Heritage team

Well it’s been a whirlwind couple of months for the Heritage team. We hosted a full and fast paced programme of events during Local History Month in May. Events ranged from talks about the WW2 bunker RAF Blakelaw, a cartoon workshop with the creator of Viz, Simon Donald, and guided walks around Jesmond and High Heaton.

Forthcoming events include an exhibition about the interwar artist, Byron Dawson, a talk about the history of one of Newcastle’s best known picture houses, the Tyneside Cinema, and a new major exhibition exploring the region’s sporting history. Find out more in the latest Page Turner newsletter.

008561:Shield's Road Newcastle upon Tyne C. 1900

Shields Road, circa 1900

We’ve also had our fair share of television crews visiting the section. We took part in an item that was broadcast on the local news on the eve of the Royal Wedding. You may have heard that the Duchess of Cambridge has Geordie roots and we’ve got the paperwork to prove it! Using parish registers and census records we were able to show that the Duchess had ancestors who originated from an area at the top of Shields Road – known then as Byker Hills. They were a mining family who moved from Newcastle to County Durham.

There was also a visit from the BBC’s ‘Who Do you Think You Are’ production team complete with a famous face who has local connections.  Filming in the heritage section took a full day and the celebrity was a great hit with the public and staff. We’ve been sworn to secrecy for the moment- but watch this space…

We are delighted that the History Club has been nominated as a finalist for the prestigious CILIP Libraries Change Lives Award alongside Newcastle Libraries’ NEALIS project. View videos and more information about the projects here. The winner will be announced at the CILIP Umbrella conference on 13 July 2011.

Newcastle City Libraries now subscribe to the Find My Past geneaology website. Members of the library can access both the Find My Past and Ancestry websites free of charge in any Newcastle Library. (Please note you must be accessing these links in one of our libraries to have full access to the searches.)

Kath Cassidy
Heritage Service Manager

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27
May
2011

News from the Heritage team at City Library

It’s been an action packed few months for the Heritage team! We launched a new exhibition called ‘Evolving English’ which displays treasures of the English language with a specific focus on North East dialects.  The exhibition will be ending on 31 May and it has proved popular, attracting 71,260 visitors during its 14 week run!

Images by Lazlo Torday, a local photographer who took fantastic social photographs from the 60s and 70s, are currently on display on level 6 until early next week. The images are of people talking or socialising and many of them are unidentified so we asked visitors to City Library to help identify the views and people. We’ve had a wonderful response with many visitors offering ideas on location and indeed identifying the people in shot. Thanks very much to all who have contributed. To get involved online, view another set of images from our Tyneside Life and Times collection – if there are no titles and if there is nothing in the image description post a comment on Flickr so we can investigate. View images.

We’ll be launching a new exhibition at the end of July called ‘Played in Tyne and Wear: Exploring the North East’s Sporting Heritage’ which will be running until the end of October 2011.


We’ll also have a display of images of the artistic work of Byron Dawson where you can rediscover Newcastle of the 1920s and 1930s.  This is from 6 June on level 6. A new book about this artist has been recently published by Tyne Bridge Publishing called ‘Newcastle Between the Wars: Byron Dawson’s Tyneside’ which is available to buy from the City Library.

We’ve had a very successful Local History Month, both in City Library and across the branch libraries. Highlights have included a fantastic talk by Paul Joannou on the ‘History of Newcastle United Football Club’ and ‘A Bit of a Giggle’ with Viz writer Simon Donald and Geoff Laws.

We also took part in Newcastle Fashion Week and hosted a number of successful events in the City Library, including the ‘Newcastle Vintage Guide’ which was a fashoin show of outfits through the decades and ‘All Tied Up’ which explored corset making. Both events proved very popular and received great feedback.

Look out for information on our Heritage Open Day events in the summer.

Sarah Mulligan
Heritage team at City Library

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11
Mar
2011

City Library’s heritage team have been evolving

It’s been a very busy year so far for the heritage team. The Taking Liberties exhibition which started with an Earl Grey tea party, ended on 30 January. It proved popular, attracting 33,224 visitors during its nine week run.

Following hot on its heels is the Evolving English exhibition. Displaying treasures of the English language and with a specific focus on North East dialects, our exhibition moves from Early English right through to the inimitable Viz magazine, with over 70 items in between. The exhibition is in the Newcastle Collection showcase on the sixth floor and will run until 28 May 2011. It’s well worth a visit if you haven’t already been!


We are currently gearing up for a packed programme of events to celebrate Local History Month in May. This includes a cartoon workshop run by Simon Donald of Viz fame, a talk on Newcastle United by the club’s historian, Paul Joannou, family history workshops and much more. Look out for our brochure giving full details, available from April.

We’re excited about being involved in Newcastle Fashion Week this year, also in May. We’ll be hosting a talk about vintage fashion – look out for further details coming soon.

Kath Cassidy
Heritage Service Manager

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28
Sep
2010

News from the Heritage team

Hello from Heritage!

The autumn season has got off to its usual busy start. We marked the popular Heritage Open Day weekend with a number of events. An absolute beginner’s event for budding family tree researchers proved very popular, and due to demand we will definitely be holding similar events in the future. A Touching the Past session concentrated on our extensive Theatre Royal archive. There was also a workshop aimed specifically at children. We have now hosted three of these interactive explorations, the first was about the Great Fire of Newcastle, the second featured the terrible Tudors and the latest was an opportunity for children of the 21st century to explore and imagine what it was like to be a child living in Tyneside during World War Two.


On Monday 13 September we invited the public to come along to the City Library and share their memories with the authors of’ Women Lives in the West End’. During October and November, Kenton Library and Fawdon Library Express are both holding reminiscence events, further details can be found in the Page Turner.

Later this month we are holding two events to mark the 175th anniversary of the historic Grainger Market. These events, held in partnership with staff from the market, will take place Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 September. If you would like to attend more information can be found on the Touching the Past: Grainger Market blog post.

We are continuing to hold a regular programme of Ancestry.co.uk taster sessions. You can use this comprehensive and excellent website free of charge at any library in Newcastle. If you would like to find out more and learn how to explore its full potential; please get in touch and book a taster session. Genealogy is becoming increasingly popular and the heritage section is a great place to start your research. In addition to Ancestry.co.uk we hold the General Register Office index, census records, historic electoral rolls, trade directories, parish records and much more. Free guides giving further information about our stock and useful hints and tips for family tree researchers are available to download on the Heritage webpage. We also have a team of helpful and experienced staff who can provide you with advice and guidance.

We are currently in the midst of planning a major new exhibition. This is entitled ‘Taking Liberties in the North East’ and is based on an exhibition held at the British Library in 2008. It will chart the development of democracy and civil liberties in the United Kingdom and show the impact these advances had on the North East. The exhibition will begin in mid November and I look forward to giving you an update next month.

Kath Cassidy
Heritage Service Manager
kath.cassidy@newcastle.gov.uk

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