Aesthetically this little Gainford chapel is subservient to its grander Anglican cousin a few feet away, but in the world of Methodism it's not often you see a place of worship as old as this. Surprisingly not listed !

More early Blyth Spartans grounds added today! Also, the Sports Archive map is also fully updated featuring the 1890s map layers and related entries. Go have a swatch: northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/sportsarchive

V cheeky reminder that tix for our first 3 Deep Dive walks are on sale! Tons of choice this year - riverbanks, country woods and industrial heartlands dominate your picks for the first half. All with a fancy guide (no not me, a professionally printed wiro book 🤠) Link below.

Afternoon! I love a good old village cross. Though most ancient iterations no longer stand in their original spots, they do quite often retain their medieval bases which is the case here.

Morning all! First addition this week is yesterdays research on the Cross Keys at Gainford - a lovely 18th century building with the added Tudor Revival timber framing from the late 19th. Still serving pints today 🍻 Have a great week everyone. www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/grid

We start a whole new series today on yesterday's trek between Gainford and Darlington. A serene jaunt along the Tees filled with historic churches, manor houses and funny old lumps and bumps in the ground. The Cross Keys however has been firmly serving pints at Gainford for the past two centuries.

Tickets are now available for the first 3 of 2026 Deep Dives walks, hosted by us! - A short walk around the industry and underbelly of the Quayside 🚢 - A spiritual trek through the garlic laden woods at Bothal ✨ - A comprehensive introduction to everything Wearside ⚓️

Good morning! Out walking today on a brand new patch for me in the reaches of our region. Anyone wanna take a guess?

Tickets now available!

Our last update of the week is a big un! - The map on our Library now features a layer for the 1890s OS, meaning you can browse our work on top of the actual historic maps. Something I've wanted since this project started. - Entries with the same architect now linked too.

Morning! I've popped the Church of St John at Alnmouth onto the website as its own entry, joining the 62 other places of worship we've added already. This one is a late 19th century building replacing the old Chapel of Ease, Hindmarsh Hall. www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/grid

Evening all. Our Quayside, Bothal and Wearside walks will be open to bookings from Saturday morning. I’m so excited to get this years walks started! Plenty of info on each walk below. :-)

This is the Church of St John, the exact church which replaced the Chapel of Ease at Hindmarsh Hall.

Combined with this - Updates to the Coals Archive map! - Each entry will now automatically search for other workings with the same owner, and link you to them - More map layers! I'm tailoring each archive to be fit for purpose, so new updates for others soon!

I've started the process of updating some of our oldest Coals Archive entries. A big update is of the Prosperous Pit nr Benton Square, opened 1772 with the inclusion of a Newcomen Engine. It was reopened by the Backworth Coal Co. in 1906. www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/coalsarchive...

Morning folks! Tickets for our Quayside, Bothal and Wearside walks will be available to book from Saturday morning :-) All details available here: www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/event-list

Hi! Couple more entries in the Shipbuilding Archive updated. I've added William Nicholson to Low Southwick who built around 5 vessels, and the North of England Shipbuilding Co. occupied part of the Doxford site previous to their expansion. www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/shipbuilding...

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!

👍

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.