Latest News

The Newsletters of the Friends are distributed to members four times a year.

 

Click here for an Index to Nos. 1 – 50 of the Newsletter. Selected articles from nos. 1 – 28 are available for downloading here. The Record Office holds the complete issues.

An archive of the Newsletters which are over one year old can be reached through the links below.  Each issue contains news of forthcoming events as well as a record of recent activities in the Museum and the Record Office.  Other principal contributions in each issue are noted below.

 

1994    1995    1996    1997    1998    1999

 

2000    2001   2002    2003    2004    2005    2006    2007    2008    2009

 

2010    2011   2012    2013    2014    2015    2016    2017    2018    2019

 

2020    2021   2022    2023

 

 

If you are researching a family, place or theme local to Berwick-upon-Tweed or the surrounding area, please do consider sharing your findings, whether in the form of an interesting snippet or a longer article, for inclusion in the Newsletter.  You never know, a Friend may be able to fill in some of the gaps, or perhaps someone in the future, reading the Newsletter online, may be able to help. Please forward copy to the Editor at newsletter@berwickfriends.org.uk

 

1994:

Newsletter 1994 March  (No. 1)

Inaugural meeting;  Foundation of FBDMA.

 

Newsletter 1994 June  (No. 2)

Selected articles include: Kirknewton cemetery survey; Snippet: a Berwick house in 1849.

 

Newsletter 1994 August  (No. 3)

Selected articles include:  Exhibit: tiled panel with parrot;  Deaths on the ramparts;  Local directories listed.

 

Newsletter 1994 November  (No. 4)

Selected articles include:  Sanitary conditions in Berwick, Tweedmouth, and Spittal: the Rawlinson report of 1850;  Exhibit: set model for the musical “Bourbon Street”;  Maritime data from Custom House registers and Crew Lists.

 

1995:

Newsletter 1995 February  (No. 5)

Selected articles include:  18th century recipes from the Haggerston family records;  Exhibit: “Temporary Bridge across the Tweed”, by W. Wilson;  Coroners’ inquisitions;  Dorothy Forster, of Crookham;  John Davidson, of Wark;  Trades description: 19th century medical advertisements.

 

Newsletter 1995 May  (No. 6)

Selected articles include:  Sir George Curry;  “Peculiar customs” in Ford village, including Shrove Tuesday football;  Exhibit: Chinese porcelain plate;  James Wallace, artist;   Books of the Board of Guardians of Berwick Workhouse, 1851;  19th century travel: the London & Edinburgh Steam Packet Co., and the Royal Charlotte Coach, etc.

 

Newsletter 1995 September  (No.7)

Selected articles include:  Exhibit: The Quintet;  Margaret Drydon’s trial for murder, 1758;  Smallpox in Berwick;  Toll roads, turnpikes, and charges;  19th century educational books.

 

Newsletter 1995 December  (No.8)

Selected articles include:  Christmas in 1894;  Exhibit: John Mackay Wilson self-portrait;  Tweedmouth Manor Court Rolls (17th century);  Parish constables, and the prosecution of felons;  Berwick entertainments in 1816/1817;  Norham local history, and Bidding the village.

 

1996:

Newsletter 1996  February  (No.9)

Selected articles include:  Transportation, and the case of James Matthewson;  Exhibit: the Nymphenburg service;  Tweedmouth Moor and its enclosure;  Railways in the 1850s.

 

Newsletter 1996  April  (No.10)

Selected articles include:  Berwick Fair;  Exhibit: Beaker Period urn;  Dr Richard Hildyard, a vicar on the run;  Maritime Berwick: the Rapid and the paddle steamers;  Clooty Mats & Sheep Shearing: 1930s rural life;  Ice in 1846.

 

Newsletter 1996 July  (No.11)

Selected articles include:  18th century cures and remedies;   Exhibit: wooden figurines of the 18th Dynasty;   Hinds;   Berwick shipyard’s last vessel, the Au-Dela;   Unrest in Crookham church.

 

Newsletter 1996 September  (No.12)

Selected articles include:  Ford School logbook 1863-1872;  Exhibit: Le Port de Berwick (1788);  Berwick tugboats.

 

Newsletter 1996  December  (No.13)

Selected articles include:  Ford School logbooks 1873-1902;  Exhibit: spouted jug;  The apprenticeship of John Marshall, 1614;  The opening of Tweed Dock.

 

1997:

Newsletter 1997 February  (No.14)

Selected articles include:  Wooler gymnastic games;  Exhibit: Stirrup jar and Tripod jug, in the Mycenaean style;  The apprenticeship of Thomas Wilson, 1614;  Regulations for Spowart Brothers’ motor ferry boats, Berwick to Spittal.

 

Newsletter 1997 June  (No.15)

Selected articles include:  Berwick Advertiser snippets of 21 February 1852 (including: Ramparts walks; Borough Petty Sessions; Knox’s faithful dog; Marriages, Deaths, and Advertisements);  Exhibit: A Chinese lady’s bound foot and boot;  George Moore’s apology, from the First Book of Enrolment, 1637.

 

Newsletter 1997  August  (No.16)

Selected articles include:  Bowsden village snippets (farm letting 1823; poisoning by oxalic acid;  free gift sale 1928;  livestock sales; Bowsden’s water supply; the Women’s Institute 1932; Bowsden Football Club);  Exhibit: a manuscript of dance tunes; Max Hague’s sound sculpture.

 

Newsletter 1997  December  (No.17)

Selected articles include:  Etal and Crookham Tillside Games;  Report from a “Baylives Courte”, 1572;  Maritime Heritage project;  The Burrell collection;  Museum conservation;  The Museum telephone exchange from Holy Island;  Exhibit: Neolithic stone axe-heads from Chatton Moor;  Richardson’s Rock Band, 1840s.

 

1998:

Newsletter 1998  February  (No.18)

Selected articles include:  The Norfolk: an ice-bound whaling ship in 1837;  Stones and statues in Berwick (the Wilson family, stonemasons; James Wilson, lighthouse keeper, and Jimmy Strength’s statue; the Maclagan memorial; Lady Jerningham’s memorial; War memorials);  Berwick plaques.

 

Newsletter 1998 June  (No.19)

Selected articles include:  Order book for the Garrison of the Barracks, 1797-1798;  Exhibit: An Old Courtyard Doorway, by Johannes Bosboom;  Report from a “Baylives Court”, 1572.

 

Newsletter 1998 September  (No.20)

Selected articles include:  Charles Rennie Mackintosh on Holy Island;  Further extracts from the Order book for the Garrison of the Barracks, 1797-1798;  Archaeological discovery at Castle Terrace (Bondington).

 

Newsletter 1998 December  (No.21)

Selected articles include:  Rules for Berwick Workhouse, 1806;  Customs, Excise, and smuggling.

 

1999:

Newsletter 1999  February  (No.22)

Selected articles include:  Ford Parish snippets (18th century peculiar customs; Marquis and Marchioness of Waterford’s visit, 1842; Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in Ford and Pallinsburn; Housing conditions, 1897);  J.M.W. Turner in Berwick, Bamburgh, Holy Island, the Farne Islands, and Norham.

 

Newsletter 1999 June  (No.23)

Selected articles include:  The Hogarth family;  Berwick Advertiser snippets of January-February 1849 (including: Cholera; irregular Border marriages; a theatre in Ravensdowne; toll house marriages; a fatal accident to builders on the Royal Border Bridge; the Berwick-Spittal steam ferry; the Berwick and Kelso railway; quarrymen);  The Four Elements exhibition;  Charles Alexander Reed (Reid), old Blyth sailor.

 

Newsletter 1999 October  (No.24)

Selected articles include:  Sanitary conditions in Berwick 1850: the Rawlinson report;  The Hogarth family, continued;  Berwick’s literary heritage: legendary origins;  Maritime apprenticeship and the Poor Law;  Social security 1806: the Seamen’s Benefit Society;  Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1813-1814 (deaths and marriages).

 

Newsletter 1999 December  (No.25)

Selected articles include:  Christmas and New Year 1899;  Berwick’s literary heritage: Heirs of St Cuthbert;  Customs, Excise, and smuggling;  Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1813-1817 (including Births, marriages and deaths; the sagacity of rats).

 

2000:

Newsletter 2000 February  (No.26)

Selected articles include:  Spittal flood 1927;  Berwick’s literary heritage: Vernacular literatures: Northumbrian, Inglis, Scots, and others;  Lloyd’s List: North Sea shipping movements in 1779-1780;  Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1818-1820 (including: Carriage costumes; A circus programme; Pickled herrings; Sale goods at the Port of Berwick).

 

Newsletter 2000 June  (No.27)

Selected articles include:  Emigration to New Brunswick on the D’Arcy; Emigration to Australia on the Lord Delaval;  Berwick Advertiser advertisements of 1820-1821 (including: An Irish jaunting car; Union Bridge tolls; Coronation of George IV; William Hamilton, cabinet maker and dealer in hardware and toys).

 

Newsletter 2000 October  (No.28)

Selected articles include:  The Coldstream Guards and the Freedom of Berwick, 1950;  Emigration of Peter & Georgina Hogarth to Australia on the Lord Delaval, 1852;  Berwick’s literary heritage: monastic masterpieces and friars of Berwick;  Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1824 (including: HMS Success in the Caledonian Canal; Nude bathing).

 

Newsletter 2000 December  (No. 29)

Includes:  Berwick Grammar School magazines; Berwick’s literary heritage: poems of peace and war; Herrings and other fishing; Berwick Advertiser snippets of May 1825 (including: The size of bottles).

 

2001:

Newsletter 2001 March  (No. 30)

Includes: Cholera and the Bedfordshire Militia; Berwick walls in 16th century politics; Book of memories; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1820/1826 (including: Mrs Garrick at Berwick Theatre; Belford’s new chapel).

 

Newsletter 2001 June  (No. 31)

Includes: Berwick’s cultural history; 18th century recipes; Berwick and the U.S. book trade: Caleb Buglass and William Woodhouse, booksellers and bookbinders; Berwick Advertiser snippets of September – October 1826 (including: Berwick Pier lights).

 

Newsletter 2001 September  (No. 32)

Includes: Reverend W.S. Gilly in Norham; Inspiration from books and archives; Berwick and Russia; Berwick’s cultural history: music concerts;  Bondagers in North Northumberland; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1822/1827 (including: 18th century recipe).

 

Newsletter 2001 December  (No. 33)

Includes: Holy Island Golf Course; Beadnell shipping; Memories of Jack Stewart, fisherman; Berwick’s cultural history: Sir Walter Scott and the artists; Jim Walker’s History of Berwick; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1829 (including: Weights and measures; Salt as manure).

 

2002:

Newsletter 2002 February  (No. 34)

Includes: Berwick Advertiser 1852; Berwick’s cultural history: Lord Hunsdon’s women; Finding Bondington; The ports of Berwick; St George’s Day; Berwick Advertiser snippets of June – July 1830 (including: The Poor House school; Coach from Berwick to Alnwick).

 

Newsletter 2002 June  (No. 35)

Includes: Berwick’s cultural history: the Coronation pageant of 1937; Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee; Alnmouth’s barometer; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1818/1824/1832 (including: The packet ship Dalmarnock bound for Quebec).

 

Newsletter 2002 September  (No. 36)

Includes: Union of the Crowns 400; Berwick’s cultural history: the Order of the Garter; Robert Cooper Clements of Spittal; Migration from Glendale to New Brunswick, Canada; Berwick Advertiser snippets of April 1834 (including: Auction for the Tolls).

 

Newsletter 2002 December  (No. 37)

Includes: Robert Cooper Clements, postscript; Berwick’s cultural history: Robert Carey’s ride from London to Edinburgh; Memorial inscriptions; Newspapers snippets of November 1834 (including: the Bluebell Inn Belford).

 

2003:

Newsletter 2003 March  (No. 38)

Includes: Vauxhall 1000 mile trial; Berwick’s cultural history: 17th century travellers to Holy Island; Sir Robert Carey’s descendants; Berwick on the eve of the Union of the Crowns; Berwick Advertiser snippets of January – March 1837 (including: Subscriptions to Berwick soup kitchen; Recruiting to build St Lawrence Canal in Canada).

 

Newsletter 2003 June  (No. 39)

Includes: Indenture for property in Marygate, Berwick; Falconry at Longridge Towers; Union of the Crowns poem;  Berwick’s cultural history: John Crabbe, pirate and siege-master; The case of James Belany and Rachel Skelly; Date stones in Alnmouth; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1838/1839 (including: Auction for cabinet makers; The London Dispatch; A stolen sheep at Cheswick).

 

Newsletter 2003 September  (No. 40)

Includes: Rules of the garrison and town of Berwick-upon-Tweed; Union of the Crowns events; Berwick’s cultural history: Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, and the invention of history; The Bailiff’s Court under Elizabeth I; The Berwick Journal, 15 February 1862; Berwick Advertiser snippets 1839/1840 (including: Monument in Bamburgh church; Wooler gymnastics).

 

Newsletter 2003 December  (No.41)

Includes: Etal and Crookham Tillside Games 1836; Berwick’s cultural history: ‘Doctor’ James Belany, falconry, and ‘Grey Owl’; Tweedmouth Manor Court Books; Early churches of Berwick and Bondington; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1841 (including: Sea bathing quarters on Holy Island; Great agricultural meeting in Berwick; Twizel Castle).

2004:

Newsletter 2004 March  (No. 42)

Includes: Death of PC George Gray at Eglingham; Berwick’s cultural history: sheep-farming, agriculture, and the Culley family; Union of the Crowns; Marriages and deaths of 1813/1814.

 

Newsletter 2004 June  (No. 43)

Includes: Preservation of foxes; Berwick’s cultural history: Berwick bombarded 1648, and the death of Charles II; Life on the Borderline; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1842/1843 (including: Tweedmouth Common Quarry).

 

Newsletter 2004 September  (No. 44)

Includes: Filmshow on the Blackhill campaign; Berwick Gaol (Council Offices); Berwick’s cultural history: Ghost stories; The “Lost Towers” on Berwick Walls; Publishing a book, and researching POWs; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1845 (including: Shipping news of The Tweed; Berwick and Kelso coaches).

 

Newsletter 2004 December  (No. 45)

Includes: Local events of 1894; Berwick’s cultural history: a song on the Berwick Fishery; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1846 (including: Auction of Middle Ord grass parks; a lecture on astronomy; Beaver bonnets); Berwick Advertiser snippets of June – August 1840 (including: Auction of Mr Kell’s furniture; Window tax).

2005:

Newsletter 2005 March  (No. 46)

Includes: Opening of Spittal Council School; Berwick’s cultural history: Chillingham and the art of hunting; Eleanor Weatherly’s diary of 1804; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1847 (including: W Rowlandson’s school).

 

Newsletter 2005 June  (No. 47)

Includes: Spittal in the Second World War; Maritime Berwick, and Berwick at War; Chillingham souvenirs; Norham Kirk Session Minutes 1753-1759; Cholera in Berwick 1849; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1850/1851 (including: Morpeth gaol; Sheep dips).

 

Newsletter 2005 October  (No. 48)

Includes: Robert Cooper Clements and Spittal School; Berwick’s cultural history: Henry Travers and The Quintet; The Eve of Trafalgar; Berwick Workhouse in 1853; Norham Kirk Session Minutes 1860-1863; “The Story of Alnmouth”; Spittal poetry, and hard times of 1852.

 

2006:

Newsletter 2006 January  (No. 49)

Includes: James MacBraire; Sheldon’s Minstrelsy of the English Border, reviewed; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1852/1853 (including: Tweed viaduct; Mount Hooley tile works; Overcoats).

 

Newsletter 2006 April  (No. 50)

Includes: Henry Collingwood Selby and Mr Culley of Coupland Castle; Berwick’s cultural history: Berwick in Ariosto; Oral history archive; Bondington project phase 2; Emigrants to the Harvey Settlement, New Brunswick, Canada; Facades of the Fifties; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1856/1859 (including: Washing machines; the Scotchgate Arch).

 

Newsletter 2006 July  (No. 51)

Includes: Glendale emigrants to New Brunswick on the Cornelius; Tales from the East; Berwick’s war with Russia; A difficult midwifery case for Dr James Wilson; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1860 (including: Bathing in Spittal).

 

Newsletter 2006 November  (No. 52)

Includes: Irregular marriage of James Sommerville and Mary Beveridge; History and future of the Museum; The Reaper and messages from St Kilda; War with Russia relived; Eleanor Weatherly’s diary of 1804 revisited; Berwick Corn Exchange; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1861 (including: Herring houses at Spittal; Hiring market).

2007:

Newsletter 2007 February (No. 53)

Includes: Technical education for Bamburgh and North Sunderland in the 1890s; Berwick’s cultural history: Berwick’s lost proverb; Charles Dickens and the Corn Exchange; Lowry and Berwick; Early railway fare dodgers; Edinburgh and Newcastle newspaper snippets of 1699 to 1731 (including: The Duke of Hamilton; Privateers; Parliamentary election of 1711; Horse-racing; Escape of Joshua Deans);  Berwick Advertiser snippets of January – February 1862 (including: A large halibut).

 

Newsletter 2007 June  (No. 54)

Includes: Wooler workhouse; Berwick’s cultural history: ghost-walking; Saint Cuthbert dramatised; The Armstrongs’ museum of Northumbrian life; Jimmy Strength; Berwick workhouse in 1853; Edinburgh and Newcastle newspaper snippets of 1731 and 1740 (including: Missing horses; Punishment of Robert Blackman, soldier; Great freeze of 1740; Cost-of-living riots in the north); Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1862 (including: Report of the Inspector of Police; A sturgeon caught in the Tweed).

 

Newsletter 2007 September  (No. 55)

Includes: Workhouse project; The Berwick Roll and other documents; Gateshead Asylum; Peter Catto, the Poor Law, and Edward Willoby; Jimmy Strength’s statue; Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1862 (including: Health report for Berwickshire; Road at the Plantation; Game prices).

 

Newsletter 2007 December  (No. 56)

Includes: Railway workmen’s strike; Berwick’s cultural history: an exorcism in 1644; The arrest of Robert Stuart 1804; Death notices of 1826; Cittaslow; Berwick Advertiser snippets of December 1862 (including: A visiting menagerie; London mission).

 

2008:

Newsletter 2008 February  (No. 57)

Includes:  The Land Army in North Northumberland; Berwick’s cultural history: William M’Gall and bribery in the parliamentary elections of 1859; Bondington research and the houses of George Macaskie; Spittal School centenary; The diary of Dr Henry Richardson; Berwick Advertiser snippets of April – June 1863 (including: Improvements at the Barracks; A Chirnside body).

 

Newsletter 2008 May  (No. 58)

Includes: Mail coaches and stage coaches; Berwick’s cultural history: Sir Richard Stott’s address to James, Duke of York, in 1679; Pickering & Co, of Tweedmouth (part 1); Berwick Advertiser snippets of July – August 1863 (including: Tweedmouth Feast; Saluting the Prince and Princess of Wales).

 

Newsletter 2008 September  (No. 59)

Includes: River Till drownings; Extracts from The Quintet; Discoveries in Berwick’s planning files; Pickering & Co, of Tweedmouth (part 2); Signs of sedition in Berwick, 1831; Berwick Advertiser snippets of January – April 1864 (including: Planting trees; Disposing of the Barracks; Tweedmouth Reading Room).

 

Newsletter 2008 December  (No.60)

Includes: Walter Wright, coach driver; Henry and Margaret Richardson in London; Grand Japanese Village Fair 1885; Visiting Belford and Lindisfarne 1909; Cataloguing the district planning files; Restoration in Berwick town centre; Berwick Advertiser snippets of May – June 1864 (including: Northumberland Artillery Militia at the Barracks; Holiday trains; Sunday School excursion to Dunse; A leap from the Royal Border Bridge).

 

2009:

Newsletter 2009 March  (No. 61)

Includes: Lady Jerningham; Berwick’s cultural history: Darwin and the Berwick Naturalists; The Workhouse Project; Margaret Dunlop’s child and the Poor Law; Berwick’s weather in March 1884; Bankhill’s view; The Wooler wedding of James Hardy and Ann Halliday; Visiting Lindisfarne 1909; Berwick Advertiser snippets August – September 1864 (including: Smallpox on Holy Island; Scremerston Gymnastic Games; A Tweedometer).

 

Newsletter 2009 June  (No. 62)

Includes: Lady Jerningham memorial; Allegations of mistreatment in Berwick workhouse; Chris Green: museum curatorship 1990-2009; Alfred Lewis and Belford workhouse; Berwick and District Bachelors’ Ball; Streetsweepers’ petition to the Guild; Some births, marriages and deaths, 1808-1823; Berwick Advertiser snippets of January – February 1865 (including: New Year at the workhouse;  Amateur theatricals at Alnwick Castle; Improvements to Tweedmouth Church;  Accident at Scremerston Colliery).

 

Newsletter 2009 September  (No. 63)

Includes:  Queen Victoria’s visit to Berwick 1849; Edward I and the stone coffin; Berwick Shipping Company’s first steamships; Beal Station and the message of John Redpath; A circus elephant at school in Tweedmouth; Berwick Advertiser snippets of March/May 1865 (including: Remembering the Duke of Northumberland; Slavery; A new bowling green; A workhouse matron; Food Festival).

 

Newsletter 2009 December  (No. 64)

Includes:  William Stephenson, engine driver; George Logan, workhouse schoolmaster; Dogs in church; Viscount Lambton’s death; Virtue Moffatt, struck by lightning; Berwick Advertiser snippets of May – July 1865 (including: Annual fair;  Freemasonry in Berwick; Death of William Darling; Parliamentary election 1865).

 

2010:

Newsletter 2010 February  (No. 65)

Includes: Wooler Agricultural Show 1849; Appointing a Master of the Workhouse; Coach accident at Tweedmouth; Smuggling alcohol; Virtue Moffatt again; Berwick Advertiser snippets of August-September 1865 (including: Glanton games; Illegal herring fishing).

 

Newsletter 2010 June  (No. 66)

Includes: Lee family of Tweedmouth; Wedding dress of Isabella Robertson; Vicars of Berwick;  Taxation stories; Tynemouth High School reunion; Berwick Advertiser snippets of September 1868 – January 1869 (including: Parliamentary election 1868; Tweedmouth dock proposal).

 

Newsletter 2010 September  (No. 67)

Includes: Woman in the stocks; Doddington centenarian; Brewing at Ford Castle estate; 1st Northumberland Battalion in France 1914; Ralph Dixon 1805; Crimes in Berwick 1804; Berwick Advertiser snippets of March – August 1869 (including: The Carr Rock; Annual Fair; Donations to Berwick Museum).

 

Newsletter 2010 December  (No. 68)

Includes: History of Berwick’s Archive Service; Riot on Holy Island; Flodden 500; Victorian Christmas presents; Charles Dickens and Sarah Nicholson; Berwick Advertiser snippets of September – October 1869 (including: Berwick bridge, Lancelot Branxton, the Thatch House Tavern, and a blacksmith’s shop; Spittal chemical works).

2011:

Newsletter 2011 February  (No. 69)

Includes: Lifeboat rescue of the Redhand;  Henry Richardson’s kangaroo hunt;  Short history of the Friends of Berwick and District Museum and Archives;  Child labour in Belford; Irregular marriage of John Allan and Mary Turner;  Berwick Advertiser snippets of November 1869 – February 1870 (including: Steam barge; Loading ice).

 

Newsletter 2011 May  (No. 70)

Includes: First World War project; Ordnance Survey name books; Middleton Hall pictures; Breaching the Ramparts; Berwick Advertiser snippets of April 1870 (including: Rent of grass parks; Hussars in Berwick).

 

Newsletter 2011 September  (No. 71)

Includes: Temporary railway bridge over the Tweed; Treason trial of 1405;  Bank robbery at Berwick; Berwick Advertiser snippets of April 1870 (including: Celebration of the Duke of Northumberland’s birthday; A gun tax; Cart accidents; Captain William Rowland’s record sea passage).

 

Newsletter 2011 December  (No. 72)

Includes: James Palmer Huffam VC;  Edward Willoby;  Belford Warship Week;  John Thomson’s map of Berwickshire 1821;  Berwick Advertiser snippets of June-July 1870 (including: Paddle-steamer Britannia;  Death from hydrophobia).

 

2012:

Newsletter 2012 March  (No.73)

Includes:  The Russian Gun;  Suffragists and suffragettes in North Northumberland;  A stagecoach from Edinburgh to London, 1712;  Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in Belford;  Popular lectures in Belford, 1862;  Tweedmouth Feast, 1870;  Berwick Advertiser snippets of 1870 and 1879 (including: Berwick’s water supply;  William Moor’s accident at Sandbanks;  New use for electric light on ships;  The Census in Scotland).

 

Newsletter 2012 June  (No.74)

Includes:  Tweedmouth Feast;  Family history and local record offices;  Suffragists and suffragettes in North Northumberland, part 2;  Berwick Advertiser snippets of July 1870 (including: Foot & mouth disease; Lights on fishing boats).

 

Newsletter 2012 September  (No.75)

Includes:  Queen Victoria and the Royal Border Bridge;  Riots and grave-robbing, Berwick 1792; A crinoline accident of 1863;  Young’s Bakery in Belford;  Berwick Advertiser snippets of August 1870 (including: The health of Berwick; Visitors from Jarrow; Fog, and the SS Thames).

 

Newsletter 2012 December  (No.76)

Includes:  Glendale Poor Law Union;  Kenny Blackett poem;  Mary McGhee and transportation to Tasmania;  Dr John Sharp and fireworks at Bamburgh;  Berwick Advertiser snippets of August – September 1870 (including: Rowing Club regatta; Edward Toal at the Borough Petty Sessions; A military application of ballooning; Shares in Berwick Shipping Company and Berwick & Tweedmouth Gas Company; Imported goods).

 

2013

Newsletter 2013 February  (No.77)

Includes:  Greenses Harbour;  A Friends’ website;  A ropemaker’s family: Ann Isabella Davidson and Russia;  Reverend Henry Elliott of Bamburgh;  Berwick Advertiser snippets of October 1870 (including: Scremerston pit accident; Ford and Lowick Turnpike tolls; Foundation of Edinburgh’s New Royal Infirmary).

 

Newsletter 2013 May  (No. 78)

Includes:  Military Tribunals of World War I;  Isabel Cowe;  Joseph Atkinson, intoxication, and an irregular marriage;  The Norfolk, a whaler of Berwick;  Dr Cockagne of Bamburgh, and inoculation against smallpox;  Berwick Advertiser snippets (including:  The Hen and Chickens Hotel for sale;  Drake’s Diorama at the Corn Exchange;  A police hunt for an escaped prisoner).

 

Newsletter 2013 September  (No. 79)

Includes:  Breaking of Britain project;  First World War snippets from the Berwick Advertiser;  The Friends’ website;  Woodhorn visit;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser for December 1870 (including:  Berwick Christmas Club;  James H Crossman;  Life in Japan;  The vanishing of Aurora Island).

 

Newsletter 2013 December  (No. 80)

Includes:  Riot at an irregular Border marriage, Mordington 1842;  James Traill Calder;  Legal documents and the 18th century of Berwick;  Flodden and the Duke of Norfolk’s Coat of Arms;  The General Survey of Berwick, 1562;  The Workhouse marriage of Thomas Mitchell and Jane Purdie, and unequal pay;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser for October – December 1870 (including:  French silks at E & W Paxton’s;  Edinburgh Infirmary’s Foundation Stone;  The sale of Goswick estate;  Japanese performers at the Corn Exchange).

 

 2014

Newsletter 2014 March  (No. 81)

Includes:  First World War news in the Berwick Advertiser February 1916;  Nuisances in Norham (1862);  Northumberland elections 1818-1826, and a duel of Thomas Beaumont and John Lambton;  Sir William Douglas and Berwick’s preparations against invasion, 1803;  Snippet from the Berwick Advertiser for January 1871: New Year’s Eve in the Workhouse.

 

Newsletter 2014 June  (no. 82)

Includes: First World War & Berwick;  Joseph Manderston and the workhouses of Belford and Berwick;  Berwick Playhouse and the cinema of WW1;  18th century banks;  Burglary at Bamburgh Church;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser for January-February 1871 (including: Proposal for Tweedmouth Dock; A skating and curling club; Barbara Sample, murderess).

 

Newsletter 2014 September  (no. 83)

Includes:  Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford, at Ford in 1842;  The 1782 trial of Thomas Gordon, sheep-stealer;  Parish constables;  Intoxicated poultry; Tithe turnips;  Belford war memorial;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser about WW1;  and snippets for March 1871 (including: Berwick Amateur Rowing Club; The Census; A magazine about toiletries; The wreck of The Mistress of the Seas).

 

Newsletter 2014 December  (no. 84)

Includes:  First World War news 1914;  Oral history and the Burrell Collection;  Arrest of grave-robbers in Berwick;  Wage demands of mariners, 1797; Berwick Hospital in the First World War;  A Workhouse Christmas, 1878;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser for April 1871 (including: Aunt Judy’s Magazine;  Funeral of infant prince at Sandringham; Wooler stallion show; Vandalism at South Orde farm; Correct use of English).

 

2015

Newsletter 2015 February  (no. 85)

Includes:  Our Families project;  Quarter Sessions Courts in Berwick;  Burrell collection in the Museum;  Crossing Budle Sands, 1835;  Buglass the bookbinder and Simpson the baker;  James Clark, Canadian soldier from Belford;  Maintenance payments for gaoled Berwick burgesses;  A Wooler Territorial in Egypt, 1915;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser for May-June 1871 (including: Prices of silk;  Gompertz’s Spectroscope;  Launch of the coastal steamer The Gala;  Spittal Spa Well.

 

Newsletter 2015 August  (no. 86)

Includes:  Record Office moves from Wallace Green;  William Burgon of the Greenses, Berwick lifeboat, and the rescue from the Demetra;  The Greenses in the records of the Urban Sanitary Authority;  Berwick’s general election of 1886, the hinds, and Home Rule for Ireland;  Visitor records for Berwick & Spittal in the 1860s;  Friends’ fundraising;  The Buglass family in the West Indies and Philadelphia;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser for June 1871 (including: A cow driven into the river;  A bathing pool proposed for Greenses harbour;  A vagrant reclothed in the Workhouse).

 

Newsletter 2015 December  (no. 87)

Includes: Holy Island: motor car crossings, Nurse Wake, and wedding customs;  Chris Green, an appreciation;  Friends’ 21st birthday party;  An anti-slavery meeting addressed by William Craft in Berwick;  Far Eastern Prisoners of War remembered at Belford Museum;  Berwick’s ‘loyal address’ to Queen Caroline, December 1820;  Gift Aid;  Give As You Live; Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser for June 1871 (including: Damages for injuries from dogs;  Memorial window for Thomas Bogue in Wallace Green church;  Bathing pools at Greenses Harbour;  Good Templars and temperance).

 

2016

Newsletter 2016 February  (no. 88)

Includes:  The Greenses project: the Cowe, Burgon, and Manuel families;  Berwick building registers and plans (part 1);  A capital case of counterfeit coinage, 1816;  Rosamond Leather and a WW1 canteen;  Letter from an army camp in Egypt, 1916;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser  for July 1871 (including: Theft of flowers in Tweedmouth Cemetery; Ladies’ Prize for the rowing regatta; The crops in summer weather; Edward Cuthbert’s long service with Thos. Black & Sons, of Spittal).

 

Newsletter 2016 June  (no. 89)

Includes:  Berwick in 1911;  Flodden Ecomuseum;  Berwick building registers and plans (part 2);  Theatre at the King’s Arms;  Felkington excursion 1863;  Crookham snippets;  Captain Douglas Wilkin and Middleton Hall;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser for July 1871 (including: Inspection of the Borough Police;  Female farm workers in court;  Berwick’s historical records;  Berwick Shipping Company’s annual kettle (picnic)).

 

Newsletter 2016 December  (no. 90)

Includes:  Cocklawburn in 1954;  Crookham Church 1872;  19th century holidays in Spittal;  Bailiff’s Court cases 1594;  Henri Payn, seaman, interpreter, greengrocer;  Public Houses in Berwick;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser for July-August 1871 (including: Tweedside Kettles; Postal delivery times; East Ord school treat).

 

2017

Newsletter 2017 March  (no.91)

Includes:  Holy Island lifeboat;  WW1 training trenches near Rothbury;  May Fair 1951;  Tweedmouth and Spittal Common;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser for 1 September 1871 (including: Herring boat collision; Rowing Club proposal for Tweedmouth and Spittal).

 

Newsletter 2017 June  (no.92)

Includes:  Wartime events, May-June 1917;  Greenses fishermen, the Bullfrog, and gunshots;  Isolation hospitals of North Northumberland;  Robert Rogerson at Spindleston, in the diary of John Grey of Dilston;  The Bailiff’s Court Book (transcripts 1593-1600);  Parish Register snippets, from Belford, Ford, and Ancroft;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser, October 1871 (including: Vehicle tax prosecution for farm horses; Stackyard fire at Fenham Moor; Military funeral at Wooler; An offensive nuisance at the ‘Lazy Dyke’ in Tweedmouth).

 

Newsletter 2017 September  (no.93)

Includes:  Berwick in 1952;  Branxton & Crookham Village Atlas project;  Belford clockmakers, Thomas Thompson and James Potts;  Adam Dunbar’s wooden marriage token;  Foreign visitors to Spittal in 1890;  Dangerous driving in Norham 1923;  WW1 snippets from the Berwick Advertiser.

 

Newsletter 2017 December  (no.94)

Includes:  Christmas 1917 reported;  Lennel Kirk project;  A staff dispute in Berwick Workhouse (pt.1);  Branxton & Crookham Village Atlas;  Andrew Todd of Crookham;  Fire precautions in Berwick 1568 (Bailiff’s Court Book);  The Mansion House, Holy Island;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser, October 1871 (including: Schooner stranded at Goswick; A Berwick boat race).

 

2018

Newsletter 2018 February  (no.95)

Includes:  The Archive of Smith, Photo Centre exhibition;  William Craster Pringle, of Chatton;  A staff dispute in Berwick Workhouse (pt.2);  Sea rescue at Bamburgh; Robert Story, in Branxton & Crookham Village Atlas;  The new Rowing Club (October 1871).

 

Newsletter 2018 June  (no.96)

Includes:  Alexander Lorimer Miller;  The1562 ‘General Survey’ of Berwick; The custom of white gloves;  Peter Anderson Graham, writer;  A stabbing case at the Mason’s Arms, Belford;  Bailiff’s Court Book cases, mid-1500s (grain measures; clay pits; water problems in the Greenses);  Researching old photographs;  Useful websites;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser, October 1871 (including: Municipal elections; An itinerant singer and obstruction of the footpath; Drunk and disorderly in Church Street).

 

Newsletter 2018 September  (no.97)

Includes:  George Hogg, of Canadian Light  Infantry;  “Seaside” exhibition;  Berwick’s plans for a third cinema;  Haggerston Wreck Book;  Closure of Salmon Inn, Norham;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser, November 1871 (including: Mrs James Anderson and the Byker smallpox hospital; Plan for a new wet dock; Guy Fawkes day).

 

Newsletter 2018 December  (no.98)

Includes:  Joseph Tough, of Holy Island;  Union Chain Bridge project;  Women and fishing in Northumberland, 1330-1950;  1917 wedding of John Fleming and Sarah Alderson;  William Kitching, veterinary surgeon of Belford;  Stephen Maxwell, slater of Castlegate;  Edith Sichel’s arrival in Berwick, 1912; Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser, November 1871 (including: Letting of salmon fisheries; Christy’s Minstrels; A runaway horse).

 

2019

Newsletter 2019 February  (no.99)

Includes:  Thomas Porteous Brown, of Philadelphia, Cocklawburn;  Alice Groom, Lavery’s My Lady Disdain;  Rabbit catching on Holy Island;  Bailiff’s Court Book extracts, c.1598;  William Shiell, cyclist, and his Ordinary (penny farthing);  An Italian wife in Belford;  Spittal holidaymakers, 1900-1910;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser, December 1871: Plans for the new dock in Tweedmouth.

 

Newsletter 2019 June  (no.100)

Includes:  Berwick in 1919;  Women and the plague in Newcastle;  Emigrants to Canada in 1929;  Cataloguing the music of the KOSB;  Police ‘Wanted’ posters;  Gunpowder at Tweedmouth station;  Alcoholics Aid;  “Blind Willie” Aitchison of Belford;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser, February 1872 (including: British manners and customs in 1871;  Thomas Wood, Tweedmouth teacher);  25th anniversary of FBDMA.

 

Newsletter 2019 September  (no.101)

Includes:  Berwick and cycling;  Twixt Thistle & Rose project;  Mini museums;  Ayton Golf Course;  Catherine Rutherford, of Belford, and the ‘incurables’;  Royal visit to Holy Island, 1908;  Town Hall weathercock, 1886;  Scots and vagabonds in the Bailiff’s Court Book, 1575;  Literary Festival 2019;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser, March 1872 (including: Society wedding at Paxton;  Berwick Amateur Rowing Club’s new boat).

 

Newsletter 2019 December  (no. 102)

Includes:  Berwick in December 1939;  William Burrell’s French paintings;  Alexander Dalgetty, rifleman;  Joseph Devey’s Cycle Works (part 1);  Berwick’s 20th century pubs;  Berwick 1884 as seen by US visitor from Rockland County;  Prison history: Your Local Lockup project;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser March 1872 (including: Tree vandalism; Public health and safety in Spittal).

 

2020

Newsletter 2020 March  (no. 103)

Includes:  Border marriages, and Henry Collins of Lamberton;  German pork butchers;  Theatre in Ravensdowne;  1792 Toll riots around Dunse and Chirnside;  Confession of Thomas Pigg, in Bailiff’s Court Book 1581;  Berwick’s 20th century pubs (part 2);  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser April 1872 (including: Berwick Quarter Sessions, and the influence of the Good Templars; Resistance to the police).

 

Newsletter 2020 June  (no. 104)

Includes:  COVID-19’s impact in the Record Office and the Museum;  Holy Island’s telephone (1926), postman (1950), and travelling cinema (1950);  John Purves 1785-1827;  Joseph Devey’s Cycle Works (part 2);  German pork butchers – footnotes; Toll riots around Dunse and Chirnside – amendment;  K.O.S.B. music cards;  Lockdown for the plague, 1590;  Newspaper snippets: Berwick & London Steam Ship Company changes wharf, 1872; Death of ‘Black Bill’ (William Berwick), 1903).

 

Newsletter 2020 September  (no. 105)

Includes:  COVID-19 precautions in the Record Office;  Berwick’s 20th century pubs (part 3) – Licensing registers;  Samuel Mattison, poisoning by whisky;  Cow keeping in Berwick;  James Greive and his bequest of a painting to Our Lady and St Cuthbert Church;  Difficult pupils at Belford Presbyterian School;  Ayton Cow Club;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser June 1872 (including: Poaching at Murton; Berwick Fair).

 

Newsletter 2020 December  (no. 106)

Includes:  Theo Mauritus, variety artiste, and Thomas Gilbert, cinema manager;  Berwick Borough Police Force index; Berwick’s 20th century pubs (part 4) – Licensing registers;  Berwick Borough Guild Minute Books: Thomas McKlan; poverty in Berwick 1762;  Letter of Elizabeth I to Sir Edward North on the Berwick fortifications;  Cheviot holidays, early 1900s: the Ford Robertsons;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser June 1872 (including: Large excursion from Kelso to Spittal; Charles Stewart, vagrant).

 

2021

Newsletter  2021  February  (no. 107)

Includes:  Nurse Maclennan in the Far East in WW2;  A letter to King George III, 1763;  Percival Stockdale;  The Bowsden curers of madness;  Berwick Station refreshment rooms;  Midcalf the trompetter;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser July 1872 (including:  New masonic buildings;  Complaints about the drivers of fishmongers’ carts;  Fire at Tweedmount chemist’s shop;  Mission School excursion to Twizel).

 

 

Newsletter  2021  June  (no. 108)

Includes:  Stories of Berwick’s Old Bridge;  Superintendant of Police’s Scroll Book, 1873-1874;  The Army and Berwick Pubs;  Collops;  TillVAS, ten years on;  PC John Carr and his headmaster son;  Snippets from John Sykes’s Historical Register of Remarkable Events: (Sir Henry Grey’s great pie; A green shark; Tudor gold);  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser July 1872 (including: A sleeping precentor; Police night patrol; School excursions to Horncliffe and West Ord).

 

 

Newsletter  2021  September  (no. 109)

Includes:  Bridge Street, Berwick (newspaper snippets);  Some Tweedmouth pubs;  Spinning & knitting (from the Guild Book);  Preservation of smolts and fry of salmon (Bailiffs Court Book 1593);  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser August 1872 (including:  Swimming regatta; Physiology and phrenology; A fraudulent claim of shipwreck);  Heritage Open Days programme 2021.

 

 

Newsletter  2021  December  (no. 110)

Includes:  Lifeboat rescue at Holy Island (the trawler James B. Graham) in 1922;  Berwick’s club scene (1950s-1970s);  Dr George Henderson of Chirnside (1800-1864);  Fenian alarms (1867);  Caroline of Brunswick, Princess of Wales;  The Thatch Inn, in Tweedmouth’s West End;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser August 1872: (including: Anti-Game-Law circular;  Foot & Mouth disease in Berwickshire).

 

2022

Newsletter  2022  February  (no. 111)

Includes:  Coronation of Elizabeth II and the Royal Proclamation;  Ralph Dodds & Son Ltd.;  Gas lighting in Berwick;  Snippets from enrolled deeds 1750s/1760s (Fire insurance policies; Mystery Society; Church Street, Churchgate & Soutergate; Woolmarket & Crossgate);  Clubs in Berwick, 1960s & 1970s; Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser, August-September 1872 (including: Cricket, Berwick v. Kelso; Penalty for riotous behaviour; Penalty for vagrancy and theft of pears in Norham).

 

 

Newsletter  2022  May  (no. 112)

Includes:  Queen’s coronation 1953;  The Ord gold cross in the Museum;  Andrew Ronaldson, Superintendent of Berwick Borough Police 1864-1872;  William Hopper Thompkins;  Armed police capture fugitives at the Scotsgate;  Community social clubs in 1980s Berwick;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser, September-October 1872 (including: A marital breakdown; Report from the Board of Guardians; Royal visit to Chillingham Castle).

 

 

Newsletter  2022  September  (no. 113)

Includes:  Maggie Park, James Park, and The Bootman;  Conservation Appraisal Management Plans;  Robert Lambe, Philadelphia Nelson, and Berwick Pier;  The Milne Graden Papers at Paxton and Lt. Hume Johnston;  Landladies of Berwick pubs;  An arrested swan, 1892;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser, October-November 1872 (including: A fund-raising lottery for the new Masonic Building; Potato crop failure at Ladykirk; Royal visit to Chillingham; Flood damage on the Tweed and the Whitadder).

 

 

Newsletter  2022 December  (no. 114)

Includes:  Gabriel Davis, lamplighter;  Northumbrian Manor project – progress;  Conservation Area Management Plans – progress;  Ford Forge Chapel;  Johnny Burgon & the Greenses;  Corporation Academy’s Annual Examination, 1868;  Tweed Row, Horncliffe, 1922;  Berwick Advertiser: some headlines of 1872.

 

2023

Newsletter  2023 February  (no. 115)

Includes:  Thomas Borthwick, Spittal school teacher;  Street names: Coxon’s Lane;  Tourism in Northumberland 1908;  Evening school at the Corporation Academy;  William Thompson and a speeding bread van;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser, January 1873 (including:  James Wyllie, draughts champion;  Coal shortage;   A violent altercation between gunboatmen and fishermen;  George Archbold’s anaesthetic ether).

 

 

Newsletter  2023 June  (no. 116)

Includes:  Holy Island 1750-1850;  Eglingham churchyard project;  Photo Centre discoveries;  Northumbrian Manors project;  Scottish country dance party, 1953;  Irregular marriages at Coldstream Bridge;  Henry Pirnie and the wreck of the brig Janet Allison;  John Boal and his family;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser, February 1873 (including:  Sleeping carriages on the East Coast railway; Coast Guard quarters at King’s Bastion; Fatal poaching affray at Eglingham; John Beveridge).

 

 

Newsletter  2023 September  (no. 117)

Includes:  A fraudulent music professor, 1856;  Australian descendants of the Hughes and Knight Gregson families;  A mourning pendant for Margaret Greive, of Ord House;  Robert Rutherford and a theft of spectacles;  Reverend John Irwin;  Snippets from the Berwick Advertiser, February 1873 (including: Alderman Purves of Berwick at the London Lord Mayor’s Municipal Banquet).