Northumberland Voices

A podcast to accompany our true crime blog series:

The Illuminated Sheep Project is taking the opportunity to produce a series of Podcasts from the oral history archive created by Sheep Tales in 2011 and 2013. https://www.sheeptales.org.

This is the third podcast, Short Baaaack and Sides; Northumbrian shepherds talk shearing and dipping.

Northumberland Archives and Libraries have planned a series of events from September to December 2022 as part of the Illuminated Sheep programme, inspired by the return of the Lindisfarne Gospels to the North East in 2022. https://laingartgallery.org.uk/lindisfarne-gospels-2022

Funded by North of Tyne Combined Authority.

The Illuminated Sheep Project is taking the opportunity to produce a series of Podcasts from the oral history archive created by Sheep Tales in 2011 and 2013. https://www.sheeptales.org.

This is the second podcast, Births, Bottles and Blizzards, Northumbrian shepherds talk about lambing.

Northumberland Archives and Libraries have planned a series of events from September to December 2022 as part of the Illuminated Sheep Programme, inspired by the return of the Lindisfarne Gospels to the North East in 2022. https://laingartgallery.org.uk/lindisfarne-gospels-2022

Funded by North of Tyne Combined Authority.

The Illuminated Sheep Project is taking the opportunity to produce a series of Podcasts from the oral history archive created by Sheep Tales in 2011 and 2013. https://www.sheeptales.org.

This is the first podcast, Some Men and their Dogs, Northumbrian Shepherds talk about their Border Collies.

Northumberland Archives and Libraries have planned a series of events from September to December 2022 as part of the Illuminated Sheep Programme, inspired by the return of the Lindisfarne Gospels to the North East in 2022.

https://laingartgallery.org.uk/lindisfarne-gospels-2022

Funded by North of Tyne Combined Authority.

Hetha Butler lived at Ewart Park, Northumberland from the age of one in c.1897 until 1937. She was the grand-daughter of the social reformer Josephine Butler.

In this podcast she describes her childhood at Ewart Park. She talks about the servants in the household and being brought up by a governess. Hetha was not very interested in academic learning and describes the other activities that she enjoyed as a child, including roller skating! She also recalls the parties and entertainments thrown by her family for the "estate folk".

Online exhibition about Josephine Butler:

https://northumberlandarchives.com/exhibitions/butler/1.html 

Blogs about the St Paul and Butler families of Ewart Paul:

https://www.northumberlandarchives.com/2016/10/18/of-international-importance-the-st-paul-butler-families-of-ewart-park/

https://www.northumberlandarchives.com/2016/10/25/of-international-importance-the-st-paul-butler-families-of-ewart-park-part-two/

Peter Connelly, Northumberland Archives intern and third year history student at the University of Strathclyde, introduces his podcast for Northumberland Voices. Peter revisits some old favourites from the series and presents some new voices to give listeners a flavour of life in the mining communities of Northumberland during the 1920s.

A blog about the 1921 Miners' Strike by Peter can also be found here:

https://www.northumberlandarchives.com/2022/03/30/the-1921-coal-miners-strike-part-one/

Jean Mather talks about her life in Craster where she was evacuated during the Second World War. She talks about her grandparent's house where she lived and of the food that her grandmother cooked. She describes clootie dumplings and proggy mats as well as Christmas time treats.

Bob Hepple was born at Sook Hill Farm, Cawburn, near Haltwhistle in 1891. Bob dedicated his life to shepherding on the hills in the Tynedale area. In the first of these oral history extracts Bob talks about the hirings, when farmers engaged farm workers. He also describes sheep dog training and even reads some poetry!

For more about Bob Hepple's oral history, see our blog post:

https://www.northumberlandarchives.com/2021/11/15/bob-hepple-shepherding-in-tynedale/

Extracts from an Oral History interview with Tom Easton.

Tom was born in 1896 and lived in West Sleekburn as a child. He joined the Tyneside Scottish Brigade during the First World War. After training at Alnwick, Tom fought in France and Flanders until he was captured in April 1918. As a prisoner of war, Tom opted to work down a German coalmine near Brambauer in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Margaret Elizabeth Palmer attended school in Throckley, Northumberland. She did well at school and passed exams that allowed her to become a student teacher. From the age of 13 to 18, Margaret travelled into Newcastle to a teacher training centre. She gave up her job when she got married, but was persuaded back during the First World War.

Here she talks to Amanda Arrowsmith, archivist from Northumberland Archives, about becoming a teacher in Northumberland at the beginning of the twentieth century.