Northumberland Archives

11/09/2026

If this is your vibe...

10/09/2026

This year is Berwick's 35th anniversary of Heritage Open Days and the event will take place between 11th and 20th September in Berwick. There is plenty going on over the whole period. We have registered 112 events which include topics on - historic buildings; art; photography; sport; exhibitions; guided walks and talks. Further details on how to book can be found on the Heritage Open Days website.

11th-20th SEPTEMBER 2026 - 11th-20th SEPTEMBER 2026 - Welcome to Berwick Heritage Open Days Berwick-upon-Tweed is the most northerly town in England and is bursting at the seams with history!Explore the wonders of Berwick’s history from the Medieval times right up to the 1990s with our packed prog...

08/09/2026

🌀A Whirlwind Campaign

📸We're currently cataloguing 80 black and white photographs taken by R. Bell Bolton Press & Pictorial Photographers, Amble, Northumberland.

🦊The collection features pictures of sports and pastimes, some of which we now look on with different attitudes to previous generations, like fox hunting and hare coursing.

💡However, there are also pictures covering other subjects, including sport, politics and the installation of electric supplies to Amble and Alnwick.

✉️The first image shows Mrs Edna Penny. She was the Labour Party candidate for Berwick Division in the 1923 General Election. The rear of the photo has a handwritten description which says “Mrs Edna Penny, who is carrying out a whirlwind campaign for Labour in the Berwick Upon Tweed Division, is here seen pressing home her points to an interested postman". We're not sure how interested the postman really was, but the man on the right seems delighted by her policies.

🔵Edna Penny did not win the seat in that election – she was defeated Mabel Philipson (nee Russell) who retired from an acting career to fight the seat which had been vacated by her husband Hilton Philipson. Mabel stood as a Conservative candidate, despite her husband having represented the National Liberal Party and won to become the North East's first female Member of Parliament.

🔎Having discovered that Berwick had a female MP in 1923, we then searched our catalogue to see if we had other information.

🚗The next picture shows Mabel Philipson on the left in the white hat, visiting the Carr-Ellison family at Hedgeley Hall near Powburn in September 1930. Also in the photo is the driver named Keegas and a Miss Green. This photograph is from the estate collection of the Carr-Ellison family which we hold at Woodhorn.

🏆Going back to the original collection, we also found this image of a successful football team, from the 1920s, posing with a trophy. We think that the sign says "Amble are champions", but does anyone recognise the team or the trophy or have any additional information?

Election results: https://www.parliament.uk/

06/09/2026

Happy National Read A Book Day!

We're all about a good read.

Northumberland Libraries

03/09/2026

October 1980- Children tattie (potato) picking, helping Mr William McGregor at Mount Pleasant Farm, near Berwick-upon-Tweed, where the heavy soil posed problems for the big machines. Back breaking stuff!! Ref No: BRO 2103/1/1980/1184

02/09/2026

On this day: 360 years ago, the Great Fire of London started in Pudding Lane, destroying great swathes of the city. https://www.fireoflondon.org.uk/

This photograph (which appears twice in our collections!) shows how the eighteenth-century folk of Rothbury tried to combat the threat of conflagration within their town.

Fires had destroyed parts of Rothbury in 1738 and 1781 and so local landowner, George Farquhar, gave this fire engine to the parish in 1788. A note of his gift was made in the Vestry Book, which can be seen here at the archives (EP 103/52). The parish then paid for the annual upkeep of the engine.

Over 100 years later, in 1896, the parish magazine (EP 103/112) included an article about the engine. It seems likely that the photograph was taken around that time. Included in the picture is the local historian, David Dippie Dixon. As well as being a member of the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries, the shopkeeper from Rothbury was made a fellow of the London Society of Antiquaries in recognition of his extensive research and writing.

Follow this link for a full transcript of the parish magazine article:
https://rothbury.co.uk/heritage/fire-engine/

You can also see the engine in action in this fabulous Gaumont Graphic film of 1913:
https://youtu.be/UurQ8JGgrMg

Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne (SANT)

29/08/2026

On Saturday 22 August staff hosted a WW2 event at Mayfield Community Centre, Cramlington. We set up some of the display boards created as part of our WW2 project, offered a workshop that provided guidance around using the 1939 Register and a rationing activity. Staff were on hand to offer advice about WW2 sources and using our service more generally. All of this was made possible via the grant made to our service by National Lottery Heritage Fund for our 'At War And In Peace' project.

28/08/2026

Back in the 1990s, the Sun Inn pub in Bedlington was the third stop on my regular Saturday night route through the town. My friends and I religiously frequented six pubs and along with the Red Lion, this was my joint favourite. I was aware that it had a dark history, but it wasn’t until I started working for Northumberland Archives that I explored this further.

🍺 The 15 April 1913 was a tragic day for the town of Bedlington. James Wood Irons, owner of The Sun Inn public house, went to the premises to terminate the employment of his manager John Vickers Amos. This was due to deficiencies in stock and takings. Accompanying Mr Irons was Richard Grice whom he intended to make his new tenant manager. Richard’s wife Sarah was also present. After much distress and anger at being told that he would not be entitled to his bond/deposit, Mr Amos produced a gun resulting in the horrific murders of three innocent people. Sergeant Andrew Barton (40) was shot in the chest. P.C. George Bertram Mussell (30) was shot in the neck and Mrs Sarah Ellen Fenwick Grice (33) was shot in the head. John Vickers Amos was found guilty of murder and was hanged on 22 July 1913.

🔎 Over the years I have discovered more about the tragedy and written three blogs after finding a wealth of information in our archive collection. Northumberland Archives hold newspapers which contain detailed accounts of the murder and the court case. We also hold witness statements and the inquest reports for the three victims. I discovered a burial register for Bedlington civil cemetery which contained entries for the two police officers. In 2019, I visited their memorial stone. A search of our parish registers led me to find a burial entry at Seghill Holy Trinity for Mrs Grice. In 2020, I visited her final resting place.

This post is part of our ongoing series exploring pubs featured in the 1888 book, 'The Comprehensive Guide to the County of Northumberland' by William Weaver Tomlinson.