News, Events, Resources
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Newsletter
Our latest news bulletin is issue 68, dated June 2020
Photo Archive
Scanned images from our photo archive
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Important Notice: Coronavirus. Most if not all events listed in these pages have been cancelled, or will be very shortly. We are leaving them on the website, with their links, as they generally include a contact point for you to make further enquiries if you wish. Check the home page of this website for developments (other pages may not have been updated). |
In normal times, you can follow these links to find out more about events organised by others in the North East (or occasionally further afield if they involve our members), this month and through the year. If you know of an event that might interest our members, please e-mail the website editor with full details.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, we are instead providing an Exchange newsletter of information and resources, sent out once a week at the weekend. Follow this link for copies of each of these (you will need to log in as a member first).
Other information about events and projects around the North East and Cumbria can be found on the CBA North website. https://cbanorth.wordpress.com/
We also have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and a regular e-mail circular. If you are a member and would like to be included on the e-mailing list, please e-mail the website editor.
News
- The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland has announced that its annual Rhind lectures, usually held over a weekend in May, have been postponed until later in the year, probably September - but with no date decided yet. They will provide more information on their own website in due course.
- Our member Marta Alberti is carrying out a research project on volunteer motivations on Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site. It aims to test a set of research tools which could, in the future, help heritage organisations to figure out what volunteers want from their experience, what heritage professionals need and what is already on offer. You can read all about it here, and if you are already a volunteer on the Wall, fill in a short questionnaire for her.
- Veronica de Freitas, a PhD student at Durham, is researching the role and future of historic cemeteries, particularly from the perspective of those who live and/ or work in their vicinity. She would love to hear the views of your members on the topic, as people who value cultural heritage are currently under-represented in my research.
Please contact her by e-mail if you would like to take part in her research. The only criterion is that they must live and/ or work either in the West End or Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. - Congratulations to Durham Miners' Association, which has been awarded £400,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to prepare the ground for restoration and revival of Redhills, Durham Miners' Hall, the 'Pitmen's Parliament'.
- The City of Durham Trust’s annual Architectural Award for a new building or major refurbishment has gone to the Assembly Rooms Theatre in North Bailey, re-opened after 14 months of renovations. It was built as assembly rooms in the eighteenth century, and converted to a theatre in 1869, after Durham’s Theatre Royal was destroyed in a fire. It became the home of the Durham amateur operatic group and doubled as Durham’s first cinema. Purchased by the University in the 1930s, it became a theatre once more in the 1950s. One supporting wall on the far side of the basement is a medieval defensive structure, sadly no longer visible.
- Congratulations to Jon Allison and Newcastle University archaeologists for winning the Current Archaeology magazine award for Rescue Project of the Year, for their intrepid activities recording the Written Rock of Gelt, in a quarry near Brampton, Cumbria - including abseiling down a cliff face
Follow this link for More News
New books by our members and others
- Un-Roman Sex; Gender, Sexuality, and Lovemaking in the Roman Provinces and Frontiers is a new book by our very own Rob Collins and Tatiana Ivlieva. It is an academic book, at an academic price, but there is an e-book at a less exorbitant rate available. It draws on evidence from Britain, and Hadrian’s Wall in particular, quite extensively.
- Rob is also the editor of Living on the Edge of Empire, due out in August in both print and e-book format, but available for pre-order at a reduced introductory price now. It is the first attempt to offer in publication an account of the collections across the entire Wall, arranged thematically, and has more than 200 images, many in full colour and from all the major Wall collections.
- The indefatigable David Breeze is joint editor of a new book, The Antonine Wall: Papers in Honour of Professor Lawrence Kepple, published by Archaeopress this month. Normal price £30, it is available on special offer at £24, plus p & p. Follow this link for the flyer.
- Roman Britain... And Where to Find It, by Denise Allen and Mike Bryan is an 'illustrated history of the best Roman sites and artefacts to be found in Britain'. Amberley Publishing, £19.99 (£17.99 for pre-orders), due out in May.
- The Pilgrimage of Hadrian's Wall 1849-2019; a History, David Breeze, published jointly by ourselves and the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. Free to those who went on the 2019 Pilgrimage, £10 for others including postage; please e-mail our office to obtain a copy.
- Cromwell's Convicts: the Death March from Dunbar 1650, by John Sadler and our member Rosie Serdiville, is being published by Pen and Sword Books at the end of January. Our members can receive 25% off by putting in discount code CROM25 when ordering online
- Uncle William's Book, William Clegg, an autobiographical account of Edwardian working class children. Published by relative Michael Clendining; copy in our library at AG 215.
More books of interest to members
Deaths
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Our member Jim Green died on 9 April, aged 91. Jim served in the Merchant Navy for many years then worked as an electrical engineer at Dunston power station. He often sat at the back of the Mining Institute lecture theatre, but ill-health and fading eyesight prevented his attendance at meetings in the last year. He was also a long-standing member of Whickham History Society, where he shared his extensive historical knowledge and anecdotes freely and with great humour. Always friendly, he will be greatly missed. He leaves a son and daughter-in-law.
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Our member Mary Longley died at the age of 84 on 10 October. Mary moved to Haydon Bridge in the Seventies to take up a post as Superintendent of Registrars. She had previously worked with Enid Hart. the first woman President, who immediately signed her up as a member. The Antiquaries became a large part of her life and for many years she organised splendid country meetings which always included magnificent Women’s Institute teas to cheer us on our journey home. Although latterly she was unable to attend lectures, she continued to be interested in our events and valued the insights and friendships she had made.
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Bill Saunders, from Whickham, died on 16 October. Bill was a regular speaker to many societies in the North East and Chairman of Whickham Local History Society 1995-2015. An obituary appeared in the December 2019 edition of the News Bulletin.
For biographical details of many our deceased members, going back to the earliest history of the Society, follow this link for the SANT Biographical Directory. This document was first put together, with considerable research, by Barbara Harbottle, and is being kept up to date now by Sue Ward. Any comments, additional material, and references (in print or on the web) will be gratefully received by her.
In the future, don’t forget your past