Celebrating Northumberland Archives | A talk with Chair of the Trust

Thursday 6th November 2025 | 6pm

Celebrating Northumberland Archives

A talk with Chair of the Trust, Sue Shaw

People too often think of archives as repositories of dusty documents, the preserve of academic historians and genealogists. Much more importantly, they are an invaluable resource, evidence of our history and culture. They can be used to hold governments and organisations to account; to inform decision making; to inspire creativity. They can re-energise local communities, generating pride and strengthening ties. They should be celebrated.

Northumberland County Council’s archivists have been rigorous in collecting relevant material to protect it from destruction, dispersal or sale, but have never had sufficient resource to catalogue it all and make it accessible. The Northumberland Archives Charitable Trust has been established to support and promote the Archives, triggering new sources of funding to remedy this.

A recent example shows what opening up an archive can achieve. With a grant from the Strathmartine Trust, a Scottish fund, Northumberland Archives have catalogued an early nineteenth century collection relevant to land management changes in northern Scotland, now usually called the Highland Clearances. It comprises papers of Adam Atkinson and Anthony Marshall, farmers near Alnwick, and successful pioneers of commercial sheep farming in Northumberland. They were ‘head-hunted’ to introduce sheep runs and manage shepherds on the Sutherland estate, working closely with Patrick Sellar, the (in)famous land agent tried and acquitted for culpable homicide in 1816.

On 6th November at 6pm the Chair of the Trust, Sue Shaw, will talk briefly about the work of the Trust before introducing Professor Annie Tindley of Newcastle University, one of the Trustees, who will talk about the Atkinson & Marshall Collection. She will bring a new transnational perspective to the Clearances and draw together the lived experiences of farmers, agents, tenants and landowners in the wider context of the agricultural and economic developments in Britain known as the Agricultural Revolution.

A LIVE Lit & Phil Event | FREE

(If you would prefer to book directly over the phone, please call the Library Desk team on 0191 232 0192 and they will be happy to help)

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