Don't forget that Newcastle's Castle Keep is open during the Late Shows this year, on Saturday 19 May from 7.pm to 11 pm (last entry 10.30). Follow this link for details.
The Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne is the country’s oldest provincial antiquarian society, founded in 1813. For nearly two centuries, through our meetings and publications, the Society has encouraged a deeper understanding of the history and archaeology of north-eastern England.
We are a registered charity, registration number 230888. For an overview including recent copies of the accounts, click here for our entry on the Charity Commission website.
We have a thriving membership and new members are always welcome - both professionals working in the field, and non-professionals who are interested in the antiquities and local history of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne. Here are details of subscription rates and the membership package provided, and the most recent News Bulletin, published December 2011. NB We issue a monthly reminder by e-mail, covering coming events and current news. If you would like to be added to this list, please follow this link to send an e-mail. We also have a fan page on Facebook. Members with a Facebook account should click the 'Like' button, which will allow them to see on their own Facebook page when events and information are added on the Society's page .
Our postal address is
Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne
Great North Museum: Hancock,
Barras Bridge
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4PT
Normal opening hours for the library are 10.00 am to 4.00 pm Monday to Friday during University terms, 1.00 to 4.00 during University vacations. Click here to see the blog kept up by the librarian, Nicky Clarke. Here are details of recent acquisitions. We are also partners in the Heritage Lottery-funded Old Newcastle Project, covering the Castle and Cathedral area. Follow this link for more details of this.
Activities May - July 2012
- 12 May, Country Meeting, Temple Newsam, Leeds
- 16 May, 6 pm; Special Public Lecture, Drs Clive Waddington and Dave Passmore, Archaeology and Environment of Northumberland: Mesolithic to Anglo-Saxon, Venue; Great North Museum: Hancock
- 30 May, Monthly Meeting, Drs Sarah Semple, David Petts, Chris Gerrard, Re-thinking Yeavering and its Hinterland: new approaches and new findings in context.
- 2 June at 10.30; Time Walk, Flodden area, led by Chris Burgess.
- 22 June, President's Evening at Segedunum, with a talk by John Clayson on their current exhibition about North Eastern mining disasters, Into the Mouth of Hell. Members may follow this link for details and booking form
- 27 June, Monthly Meeting, Alan Beale, Reconstructing the Ancient Greek Olympics
- 14 July Country Meeting Around Muggleswick. Follow this link for details and a booking form
- 25 July, Monthly Meeting, Max Adams, Thinking about Oswald: a biographer's view of early medieval kingship
What's New
- 1 May, Public lecture, ' '"Not worth a Penny": Credit and inequality in Early Modern England', at Lit and Phil, 6.00. Follow this link for more details of this lecture
- Trip to Chester on May 18-21 by Durham Archaeological and Architectural Society; non-members invited but please book as soon as possible. Follow this link for details.
- Full programme now available for The Late Shows 18-19 May; your chance to get around the museums and other cultural sites late into the evening. Follow this link for details.
- 25 May, Jarrow Lecture 2012, at St Paul's Church, Jarrow, 7.30. The speaker will be Canon Professor Sarah Foot, FRHistS, FSA of Christ Church, University of Oxford, and the title is 'Bede's Church'. Follow this link for more details
- 2 June, 10am-4pm: History Fair at the Seaburn Centre, organised by Sunderland History Forum. Free entry. Exhibitions by local and Family History groups from across Sunderland and the North East. Follow this link for details. We would like to provide a stall at this event; please contact Rosie Serdiville if you would be able to volunteer to staff it for part of the day
- Roman Pottery Conference 7 June, Newcastle University; follow this link for details. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis on registration
- 9 June, ' 'The Great British Story' event at Woodhorn, linked to a BBC2 series presented by Michael Wood. We hope to run a stall at this event. Members who would like to volunteer their help for the day can follow this link for details
- Outrageously Modern! magazines that shocked Britain on show at Durham University Library; follow this link for details.
- New books by our members:
- The Great Walls of Newcastle, by Ken Smith and Tom Yellowley, Tyne Bridge Publishing, £6.99; follow this link for more details.
- Hadrian's Wall and the End of Empire: The Roman Frontier in the 4th and 5th Centuries, by Rob Collins. This expands the views he gave at the April monthly meeting. To be published shortly by Routledge; follow this link for details
- Family History at the Discovery Museum; exhibition, talks and walks all through the spring;
- Nineteenth-century photo collection from Black Gate being cleaned and digitised
- Members can follow this link to view our new section giving details of recent additions to our collection
- Shipley Art Gallery; historical portraits of North East figures on show until January 2013. The exhibition includes a painting of 'Eccentric and Well-Known Characters of Newcastle upon Tyne' by Henry Perlee Parker. Members should no doubt check this out!
- 5-6 July. Durham University conference on Transition and Transformation in Medieval and Early Modern Cultures'. Follow this link for details. The conference will also feature a special exhibition of the Durham manuscript collection by Professor Richard Gameson, to be hosted in Durham Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- New Ure-Swale Archaeology Forum (USAF) based at Newcastle University. A workshop is planned for 6th July although no details are yet on the website
- Royal Archaeological Society Conference to be held in Newcastle, September 28th-Oct 1st 2012, on Early Medieval Northumbria; follow this link for further details
- 5-6 October 2012; Roman Finds Group conference at Vindolanda. Early booking essential - follow this link for conference programme and booking form
- Society gears up for 2013 Bicentenary celebrations - volunteers needed
What is on this site
This website includes
- information for new and potential members, a copy of our Statutes and our recent Annual Reports and contact details for the Society.
- a summary of the history of the Society, including details about our involvement with the Castle Keep, the Black Gate, and the Great North Museum. There is also material about our acquisitions, collections, and archives, and links to the separate websites run by the other organisations involved;
- material about our annual learned journal, Archaeologia Aeliana, including an index of recent volumes and important information for those wishing to submit articles, and also information about our other publications;
- details of our programme of monthly lectures for the coming year.
- details of Country Meetings, Country Walks, and other events in which the Society is involved,
- other news about the Society, including current and past issues of the News Bulletin, published twice a year in June and December.
- information about the Library at the Great North Museum; Hancock, which houses the Society’s thirty thousand books.
- an extensive series of links to other websites covering topics of historical and archaeological interest, both local and national
See the site map for further details.