Evening! Seems like Alnmouth is full of pubs with interesting tales. Such can be said of the Red Lion, which is said to be an 18th century coaching inn with wall panelling from the SS Carpathia. Let's have a deeper dive...

Morning! Football has been the focus of additions for the Sports Archive this morning (both the professional and the uncouth kind) with Croft Park and a couple of Shrovetide venues added at Lowick and Chatton. northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/sportsarchive

Evening everyone. I’m planning on doing an interrailing trip for 4 or 5 days this year. I want to take in massively flamboyant cathedrals, proper ironclad engineering and historic railways. What would yous recommend?

Evening everyone - it's been a while since we covered a Pant. Alnmouth treats us to a fair few!

Morning all 🥶 Started up the new week with the addition of the Schooner Hotel to the Library. A turn of the 19th century lodgings & inn which is sadly dormant due to dodgy owners. It's listed though, so will hopefully return to glory in the future. www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/grid

Sometimes maps tell us all we need to know without having any direct context or evidence. South of Lowick (Northumberland) is the Football Moor. A field which, sometime before the 19th century, was the home of village Shrovetide (or a variant of it).

The Schooner is a lovely Georgian hotel & inn on Alnmouth's Northumberland Street. It's by far the most assertive and imposing secular building in the village, not least because of its paint job which contrasts against the sandstone neighbours.

Great news from this local business to start the New Year. I had the pleasure of doing some work for British Engines back in 2013 and they seemed a really great team. I hope that this leads to more, good engineering jobs on Tyneside. Chronicle Live share.google/BMkZRpaO85r7... Cont.

I know I’m reeling constant updates atm, but another bigun is that we have a project in progress! Every month, we’ll be uploading a data release every month for patrons. Not revealing publicly what it is right now, but those on Patreon can take a peek 🤫 patreon.com/NEHL

I've nipped on this morn to add a new yard to the Shipbuilding Archive. This week I've read a ship was launched at Alnmouth weighing 300 tons in the 1760s. Very little is known, or where it was, but I felt it significant enough to add as an entry. www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/shipbuilding...

May's walk is on Wearside! If you want a fully rounded gateway into the history of Wearside, consider our trek from Fulwell to the city centre. Coal, shipbuilding, limekilns, shipping churches, football and burial grounds cover every inch of this route. Tickets soon!

Morning all! The first library addition of the year - Hindmarsh Hall at Alnmouth. A flash of Alnmouth from its days as a substantial port in the 18th century, this was a granary then church and now village hall. It still remains a pillar of civic life. www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/grid

In case you missed it. we’ve started this year with a total overhaul of our homepage, and every archive now hosts its own dynamic map. There’s still ways to go for the site, but I’m so bloody proud of it. I hope you enjoy. Here’s to 2026, and thank you everyone 🙌

Evening! We remain at Alnmouth and focus today on the Hindmarsh Hall. Upon first reflections this place looks like a Presbyterian Chapel. There’s a half truth in that, but it’s quite quite a complex and winding history.

Happy New Year - and SURPRISE! 🥳 Our brand new homepage is now LIVE at www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk More modern, simple and visually engaging. A brand new, more user friendly menu. Most of all, a big focus on what matters.

Our second walk of the season in May covers the length of Bothal Woods along the Wansbeck. I cannot wait for this, especially in Spring! Faith, nobility and a sprinkling of industry will be the tone of this walk trouncing on historical chapels and wells. So excited for this.

Good morning! I said we were lifting the floor of the site in 2026, but first thing delivered a day before ✅ Google Maps is a thing of the past. I’ve crafted a custom map on each archive which feeds in from the database, making it work seamlessly. Each location is clickable.

Alnmouth is one of my favourite places in the whole region, and the shot below only goes to prove why. These are the grounds of the fourth oldest club in the country.

Good morning! I've added a few more grounds to the Sports Archive. This includes long lost tennis & cricket grounds at Blanchland, and the cricket ground at Blagdon Park which remains in use. Hope you all have a lovely day :-) www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/sportsarchive

Our first Deep Dive walk of the 2026 season will be a scenic spring jaunt around the Quayside, starting at Bottle Bank and looping round via the Ouseburn. A proper gateway into the world of Tyneside history - railways, coal, poverty and the piety. Tickets for this very soon!

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My god we are so lucky to live in an age where kids, nevermind adults, have to be nowhere near a coal mine. I'm heartbroken by this tale of a 7 year old who, in 1829, fell asleep keeping a trap door down in Ravensworth Colliery and was ran over by wagons. Never any justice.

Quite struck by the amount of WWII defences still sit along the coast at Alnmouth. It's not exactly the most isolated place in the world and follows the coastal walking route! Not just these pillboxes, there's also tank traps and blocks. Must be too much of a pain to remove!

Morning! I've popped on all our research of Foxton Hall onto the website, with info on the building itself and its built environment. Pretty basic place this, but a rich heritage with a couple well known landed families owning it. www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/grid

So delighted to share our programme of walks & socials for 2026. 4 new routes, and for the first time every walk will be a one off. More choice + varying difficulties and distances. Bespoke guidebooks still included. Tickets available in a couple weeks for the first few!

This is Foxton Hall just north of Alnmouth, and now home to one of the oldest golf clubs in the country. It's interesting how the reserved mentality pervades Northumbrian architecture, from the medieval churches to the Georgian and Victorian country houses.

Happy to read Geordies were as radged 2 centuries ago as they are today. Outrage from the Tyne Mercury as a couple of skinny dippers jumped off the Tyne Bridge into the river in 1827. Can only imagine what the comment section would have looked like.

Out for my mandatory inter-Christmas NY coffee walk - where would you find this old railway bridge and these legacy sleepers?

Morning all - a return to scheduled programming today! I've added RAF Boulmer to the site - first a decoy RAF base from 1940 then a fully fledged airfield and Cold War operations centre through after the war. It's still in use too. northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/grid

Minorities and marginalised people in wartime deserve to be remembered as much as anyone else. I don’t think that has to be political. The IWM is one of the best curated museums I’ve been to, and I’m grateful they’re willing to cross politicised boundaries to share real stories.

Afternoon everyone. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and if you were working yesterday I hope you’re having a restful Boxing Day!

Afternoon! As a late Christmas present, you can still sign up to our Patreon (the book club tier) and get this brand new title on the history of modern renting. By the 28th!

That's it for me until after Christmas. I hope you all have a lovely & restful festive period. Also I want to thank anyone who has taken an interest - supported it, or has enjoyed it in any way. I really hope it's sparked some curiosity in what is the best place in the world.

A building intrinsically linked to the pub, and one which is far more important - the Boulmer Lifeboat Station. A lifeboat station, in this form or another, has stood on this site for 200 years this year.

Morning. Our last update before Christmas! I've added the Fishing Boat Inn, the lynchpin of Boulmer, to the site. This place has a folklore of smuggling since the 16th or 17th c, but this building was likely constructed by the turn of the 19th. www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/features/the...

Continuing at Boulmer, & I’m sure many of you have had a quick pint in these place overlooking the sea. If you had back in the day, you’d probably have cosied up with a couple smugglers.

Guinevere weeps. @neheritagelib.bsky.social is at Longhoughton. Long/great farm/village beside the hillspur. Recorded as Houcton Magna 1242. But how to say it ? Guinevere says how tun (it was spelt Howton 1281) BUT thinks locals say differently. Awaits confirmation/ condemnation. 😔

We start a short run in Boulmer today with this lovely old school. The ecclesiastical influence is deliberate, with the Gothic Revival theme throwing itself at you. Lancet windows and that little bellcote scream Anglican chapel, reflecting the school's role as a moral and social institution.

Morning! To cap the week off, I've added the Church of St Peter & Paul to the site featuring a full history and Longhoughton as a whole. Hope it comes of use. Hope you all have a great Friday, and don't drown too deep in Xmas shopping! www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/features/chu...

What a beautiful example is of an early Northumbrian chapel. Places of worship this far north are defined not just by their faith but by their insecurities, which is clear in shed loads when we take a deeper look into St Peter and Paul at Longhoughton.

A double header of additions today as we move away from Lesbury to Longhoughton. I've added the Coach Inn and Lesbury's Victorian school, both composed of gorgeous local sandstone. Both available to read on the site now :-) www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/grid

A Blueprint for 2026. Going into next year I'm taking a step back from the more cool stuff, namely the big charity hike and the Compendium, to focus on raising the floor of the whole project. Here's a few things about why!

Not often you see a drain cover with the year embossed, so this is a treat on Warton Terrace. A little bit of infrastructure which tells us exactly when this road was laid and these houses were built. Local metal working too, with the Tyneside Foundry located off Walker Road.

Morning. 18 months into the Wearside phase of the Shipbuilding Archive, and we're edging closer to the finishing line... A couple updates today, most notably the addition of Low Ford Dock occupied by William Naizby for 30 years in the 19th c. www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/shipbuilding...

The Coach Inn at Lesbury - the clue is in the name with this one! This is a classic honest coaching inn, perhaps dating as early as the 18th century but traceable only to the early 19th century.

Morning - we've (for the mo) completed BERWICK for the Sports Archive! That's about 17 historic grounds around the Tweed. 🎉 Today I've added Berwick Bowling Club and the Corn Exchange, where boxing was held in the 30s. Pier Field also updated. www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/sportsarchive

The crescent moon on this building adjacent to the church at Lesbury instantly led my eyes and brain to wander. Anywhere along the Aln (or Northumberland for that matter) features this symbol.

Morning everyone! I've added the majestic Church of St Mary at Lesbury to the site - a church steeped with history, with records of a chapel here since at least Norman times. Salvin, the famed architect, remodelled it in the 19th century. www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/features/chu...

I have some photos from its final days...