Friday 21st January 2022: Who Are The English?
7:30pm Jubilee Hall
Speaker: Michael Thomson
Depending on the covid situation nearer the time a decision will be made as to whether this will be a meeting in The Jubilee Hall or a Zoom meeting.
Uncover the earliest years of the Anglo-Saxon “conquest” of Britain
Things are not what they seem….
Why did Bede invent the term “English”?
Why did Northumbria slip from being a British kingdom to an English superpower?
Why were the Angles unwelcome invaders when the Saxons were accepted settlers?
Discover the answers to all these questions and explore their implications.
Friday 18th March 2022: England’s Trail Of Tears*
7:30pm Jubilee Hall
Speaker: John Sadler
In 1650 Oliver Cromwell won a decisive victory over the Scottish Covenanters at the Battle of Dunbar. During the aftermath, the forced march of 5,000 prisoners to Durham, many prisoners died. John, using archive material and findings from the recent archaeological excavations in Durham, will provide a graphic reminder of the fate of Cromwell’s convicts.
Link to John’s website here
* The Trail of Tears refers to the forced displacements of approximately 60,000 Native Americans between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government.
Saturday 23rd April 2022: Walking Tour Of Rothbury
2pm Meet at The Jubilee Hall
Speaker: Peter Dawson
Details TBA
Friday 20th May 2022: The Edlingham Vicarage Burglary 1879
7:30pm Jubilee Hall
Speaker: John Yearnshire
A shameful miscarriage of Justice where two of Alnwick’s most notorious poachers were ‘fitted up’ by police and sentenced to ‘hard labour’ before fate took a hand to right the wrong. A story of police corruption, wrongful arrests and shootings, eventually involving the courts, parliament and the crown!
Click image to enlarge
Friday 17th June 2022: Illustrated Stories From Rothbury’s Past
7:30pm Jubilee Hall
Speaker: Jeff Reynalds
Jeff is giving us a sample of his eclectic collection of stories and images about Rothbury and Coquetdale that he’s amassed over many years. Local mysteries, for example:
Whose heads are represented on the Chemist’s?
Where was Thrum Bridge?
Did Rothbury have a Saxon Church?
And some scandals and controversies; fires, accidents, the Danish King of Bernicia from Whittingham and many other stories. An entertaining and educational evening ahead for us all!
Click image to enlarge
Friday 29th July 2022: The Great Tapestry Of Scotland
7:30pm Jubilee Hall
Speaker: Susie Finlayson
It took 1,000 volunteer stitchers more than 50,000 hours – and enough yarn to scale Ben Nevis 74 times to create this amazing tapestry.
It breaks the record for the longest embroidered tapestry in the world – at 143m, almost twice the length of the Bayeux Tapestry.
It tells the story of Scotland from pre-history to present day. It records Scotland’s history, heritage, innovations, and culture in 160 intricate panels.
But how do you squeeze 12,000 years of Scottish history into one tapestry?
Susie, one of the stitchers, will tell us about its creations and the stories woven into the fabric of the tapestry.
Click image to enlarge
Friday 16th September 2022: William Bell-Scott and His Art
7:30pm Jubilee Hall
Speaker: Michael Thomson
Scottish painter and poet. He was head of the Government School of Design in Newcastle upon Tyne, 1843–64, and his best-known works are at Wallington Hall: a series (1857–61) representing Northumbrian history and including the well-known ‘Iron and Coal’ (one of the earliest representations in art of heavy industry) and the Grace Darling paintings.
Click image to enlarge
Friday 21st October 2022: The Last Train
7:30pm Jubilee Hall
Speaker: The Rt Revd Dr Stephen Platten
The talk is to commemorate 70 years since the last scheduled train service from Rothbury Station.
The line from Scots Gap to Rothbury was opened on 13th November 1870 and on the 13th September 1952 the passenger service was withdrawn.
Friday 18th November 2022
A History of the Landscape from Alnham to Ewartly Shank
7:30pm Jubilee Hall
Speakers: Sally Brewis and David Jones
This talk is to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the death of two shepherds, Jock Scott, and Willie Middlemas. who perished on Saturday 17th of November 1962 when making their way home from Rothbury Mart in a blizzard. Sally will give a brief introduction about this tragic event.
This will be followed by David’s talk on the history of the landscape between Alnham and Ewartly Shank. A landscape that, although beautiful, can be treacherous.
See Newcastle Journal account here
Friday 16th December 2022
A Christmas Special
7:30pm Jubilee Hall
Speaker: Three Local Guest Speakers
Brief talks from our three guest speakers and a display of local historic photos etc. Wine and mince pies will be available.
Henry Cole (1808 – 1882) was a prominent civil-servant, educator, inventor and the first director of the V&A. In the 1840s, he was instrumental in reforming the British postal system, helping to set up the Uniform Penny Post which encouraged the sending of seasonal greetings on decorated letterheads and visiting cards. Christmas was a busy time in the Cole household and with unanswered mail piling up, a timesaving solution was needed. Henry turned to his friend, artist John Callcott Horsley to illustrate his idea.
Friday 20th January 2023
The Northumbrian Language and Its Dialects in Word and Song.
7:30pm Jubilee Hall
Speaker: Kim Bibby-Wilson
‘One of the bastions of Northumbrian speech is, of course, songs. The genre is rich in dialect, and the interconnection between the rhythm of a song and the lilt of a good dialect speaker can be instrumental.’
Friday 17th February 2023: No Event
Friday 17th March 2023
The History of OS Maps
7:30pm Jubilee Hall
Speaker: Bill Bland
Ordnance Survey mapping has a long history of over 200 years. During this time, it has evolved in response to changes in our society and threats to the country, eg
*Developing triangulation to protect our coastline at the time of the French Revolution
*Mapping the whole country enabling the railways to connect the nation
*In WW1, pioneering aerial photography
*Leisure maps help us explore the countryside
*And now, digital maps for our mobile phones
Rothbury and Coquetdale History Society 