Top drawers of my plan chest. Filled with old items of stationery and ephemera. I have no real use for all these bits but I’m always drawn to boxes filled with pens and pencils, nibs and boxes. I think in my mind one day I’ll be called
Last night I gave a talk about the history of William Cowe & Sons and the Berwick Cockle. It’s been a while since I’ve given the talk and in adding some bits to the presentation I was looking through some of the 1000s of photos I to
St. Mary’s Church, Whitby. I love the box pews in this church, especially the sign on the door of one ‘for strangers only’. Our local parish church in Berwick would have originally had box pews too and I wish they hadn’t b
Two postcards found in a junk shop today - totally unconnected apart from in subject matter. I love the sort of upstairs downstairs nature of the two shots, the two slightly different classes (so British), posing in the same way, proud of their hou
Merry Christmas! Here’s a photograph of my Great Grandmother Selina dressed as a Christmas tree. She was in service at Eshott Hall in Northumberland at the time. Looking forward to getting stuck into a couple of new projects during 2024 plu
Hot off the press!! We started work on this book about Berwick in the 1970s back in 2019 but of course the dreaded Covid meant work had to stop for quite a while as I wasn’t able to access our negatives in the archive store. Earlier this yea
New Blog Post! No, I haven’t made a mistake whilst posting these photos… Check out my latest blog post to read how the simple signature line on a series of run of the mill photographs led to the discovery of a fascinating family of ph
At the weekend I ticked the first recipe from Great Grandma’s book off the list. I chose the wonderfully named ‘Cut and Come Again’ Cake! (They just don’t name cakes like that anymore…) It’s definitely going on th
I’ve just put one project to bed and today I started work on my next one. A while ago I was given a collection of family recipe books which pretty much span the whole of the 20th century. They were written by my Grandmother, Great Grandmother
We went to see the amazing ‘Yevonde: Life in Colour’ exhibition at the weekend. I love all forms of early colour photography and this did not disappoint! Such a well curated show, with Wizard of Oz vibes, stepping out of the darkness
It’s nearly time for Heritage Open Days 2023!! We have 77 events between the 8th - 17th September so there’s bound to be something for everyone! I’m giving an online talk about the David Moor Collection on the 8th, a guided walk i
Glendale Show, 2023. I got a brief look around the show before manning the Record Office stand for a few hours. We even won best exhibit! Gosh isn’t my life exciting…!