John kindly has agreed to be interviewed on camera about his experience with Culture Track. This was to be shown at the Volunteering England Regional Conference on ‘Modernising Volunteering in the Bigger Society’ in January 2011, where I gave a keynote speech about our work.

John has volunteered with us for over a year and a half now and has been fantastic, getting involved in volunteering across all of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums venues and in particular the Stephenson Railway Museum. His enthusiasm is infectious and he’s always keen to take on a new challenge. I’m sure he won’t mind me mentioning that he won the award for his Contribution to Customer Care at the North East Regional Museum Hub too! But that’s enough from me; I will let John tell you all about it…

John Nicholls Culture Track DVD 

(Click on the link above to view the film.)

From the collection of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Selected by Brenda Astley, Library volunteer

Local records; or, historical register of remarkable events … Newcastle, 1865-67

Last week, whilst looking for some information amongst the Society of Antiquaries books, I happened on 3 rather sober-looking volumes of local records. Or, to give them their full title: Local records; or, historical register of remarkable events, which have occurred in Northumberland and Durham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Berwick-upon-Tweed, from the earliest period of authentic record to the present time … I idly started reading one of the volumes and was lost for the next hour or so.

Title page detail

Really nice marbled boards

They are full of the most interesting snippets, for example, in the volume for 1865 an entry for Dec. 7, 1733 reads: “A flying man flew from the top of the castle of Newcastle into Bailiff-gate, and after that he made an ass fly down, by which several accidents happened …”. The entry goes on to state that: “This Icarus must have been an impostor, but John Bull is easily gulled”.

There are also more weighty items like the entry for Nov. 17, 1771, about the terrible Tyne flood and the entry for Sept. 10, 1830 when the chain-bridge near Aldgate in Morpeth, which had 200-300 people on it at the time, fell into the river.

February 14, 1842 has the entry: “A singular contrivance, to evade the payment of excise duty, was discovered on board the Vesta steamer …” This turned out to be a large doll whose “head easily separated from her body, and that her neck formed nothing less than the neck of a large whisky bottle …”

There is nothing new, is there? Dip in and enjoy the trivial, the amusing and the serious.

Old houses, head of Middle Street (vol. for 1867, p.97)

Thanks to Brenda for her selection. These fascinating compilations were published in Newcastle upon Tyne in the mid 19^th century. The Society of Antiquaries copies are dated 1865-66 and were compiled by John Sykes. The Society also own a later copy dated 1867 by T. Fordyce, a continuation of Sykes’ volumes. There also appears to have been earlier compilations by Sykes dating from 1824. The Natural History Society of Northumbria’s archivist tells me that these earlier volumes included engravings by Thomas Bewick. If anybody knows any more about the history of these unusual books please let me know. Nicky.

These books are all available to look at in the Great North Museum: Hancock library.

For library opening times please visit the Museum’s website or phone 0191 2223555 for more details.

New books in the library:

Edge of empire, Rome’s Scottish frontier : the Antonine Wall / David Breeze, 2008

Wayside and woodland fungi / W.P.K. Findlay, 1967

From Stonehenge to Santa Claus: the evolution of Christmas / Paul Frodsham, 2008

Northern landscapes: representations and realities of North-East England / T. Faulkner, H. Berry and J. Gregory (eds), 2010

Northern pride: the very best of northern architecture from churches to chip shops / J. Grundy, 2003

New books in the library

Bulk Finds: broken pottery sherds

Behind the scenes at Segedunum we have a number of stores where we house the objects which have been found during the excavations of the Roman Fort as well as the finds from other excavations within Tyne and Wear. Every object excavated must be cleaned and numbered, and every object of interest drawn or photographed. This information helps the archaeologists to piece together the life of people living and working in Tyne and Wear over the past 2000 years!

These pictures show the stores before, and after, Dawn, our Preventive Conservator and Alex, our Curator of Archaeology set to work on re-organising the store following the allocation of a small grant which paid for some new shelving to be bought. The result was a much more workable space where the research can continue.

The store before the team set to work...

Alex explained that, ” in these boxes are the bulk finds from various excavations in the region. ‘Bulk’ finds are things like pottery, animal bone and tile that are found in large quantities on sites – hence the name! This is the stuff that rarely ends up on display, but it usually provides a lot more information about life in the past than the pretty objects in the museum galleries. It just takes up a lot of space…..”

Dawn said, “This is just one example of ongoing work to improve storage across Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums and its diverse range of collections.” 

…job done!

The Sidings Area 1977 to 2010 (courtesy Peter Gibson).

The Sidings Area is an original feature of the station when it opened in 1848. It is shown on the 1^st Edition of the Ordnance Survey (10 feet/mile scale) for Sunderland produced in 1857. It is a dock platform designed to enable the loading and unloading of road carriages on and off railway wagons. Although the station originally had a siding with animal pens at the south end of the platform, animals could also be loaded and unloaded here and it is known that circus animals, including elephants, were unloaded here in the 1940s and 50s.

The Sidings Area in the early 1970s.

Clearing the site in 1977.

The opening of the Sidings in 1977.

When the station was bought by the Council in 1972 and converted into a museum the purchase did not include the Sidings Area which had fallen into a state of dereliction. However, a move was made to acquire the site from British Railways and in 1976 the land was leased from the British Railways Property Board, cleared and restored. This included demolishing some existing derelict buildings, such as the lamp shed, that were not original parts of the station. The track also needed relaying. An original signal and loading gauge were also set up within the Sidings Area. The Sidings Area was opened to the public as a new display with the two restored wagons in 1977. The interpretation was by graphic panels but the public had to appreciate the wagons from the outside as access inside them was prohibited.   The land was eventually purchased from British Rail in 1989. At this time some restoration of the wagons took place.

During the 1990s the Museum grew in popularity but the building was growing tired and by 2004 required new heating, rewiring and repairs to the stonework and roof. The displays also needed replacing. The Sidings Area was originally included in the works with plans for a shelter to keep the worst of the weather off the wagons being part of scheme but because of the cost of the works the Sidings Area had to be put on ice until the main building had been dealt with. So when the Museum, which had closed in August 2005, re-opened in 2007 the Sidings Area was kept closed.

The original proposal for a shelter was in 2002 but did not make it into the final restoration project of 2007.

Trees being cleared in 2008.

A new design for an all enclosing building was developed from 2008.

The future of the site was debated and a new scheme, that included a building rather than a shelter, was prepared. Works that could be done easily and inexpensively were carried out in preparation such as the removal of trees and vegetation. In 2008 Robertson.Simpson was appointed as the Design Consultant and an affordable scheme was developed. The money for the building works came from a Department of Culture, Media and Sport Capital Grant. Once the scheme had been agreed in 2009 planning permission was sought and in 2010 the contract for the main builder was put out to tender and Meldrum Construction, a Birtley based firm, was appointed.

As the Museum is a Grade 2* listed building English Heritage has to approve the design and it is their policy to ensure that modern buildings do not appear to be part of the original site but are obviously modern. Therefore building is a contemporary design with a steel frame structure, curved aluminium roof and glass and cedar wood timber boarding along the sides. Its function is to protect the wagons from the weather and from vandalism and to provide a better overall experience for our visitors. The north end has folding doors and removable panels to allow the wagons to be wheeled in and out as and when required. The south end doors can also be folded open to allow large objects in and out. A glass barrier with timber rail runs along the edge of the platform to stop people from falling through the gap between platform and wagons. In order to reduce the noise of rain on the metal roof the underside of the roof is lined with insulation and timber boarding.

As the Wagon Shed will be a workshop whilst the wagons are restored it is equipped with a 440 volt three phase electricity supply as well as a standard 230 volt single phase supply for general use. 

In order to get firm foundations one of the first jobs was driving piles into the ground. The equipment to do this had to have very low levels of vibration so as not to affect the structure of the nearby railway (courtesy of Meldrum Construction).

UThe close proximity of the railway restricted the use of cranes and so the framework, which was at low level, was carried out using the arm of an excavator.

The steel frame seen from inside.

Showing the framework to which narrow aluminium sections were added to form the roof (courtesy of Robertson.Simpson).

Meldrum Construction started on site in June and completed the contract in the agreed time handing the building over to the Museum on 5 November 2010.

Once up the structure was panelled with glass and timber cladding, the steelwork for the glass barrier installed and the services, such as power supply provided.

Although not a feature of the original design the timber lined insulated roof is a nice finishing touch to the building. It was installed to provide sound insulation from rain falling on the metal roof.

The finished building (courtesy Robertson.Simpson).

Outside the cobblestones were relayed and new tarmac replaced the old worn out surface. Beyond the platform the ground was cleared of vegetation and new ballast laid down. The old flower bed next to the platform was also cleared and made ready for replanting. Plans are currently in hand to set up a volunteer scheme to design and replant the flower bed and manage the landscaping of the site and this will be the subject of a future entry.