Northumberland Archives Trust is a charity set up to support, promote and extend the vital work carried out by the Northumberland Archive Service. Based at Woodhorn, near Ashington, and at Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Service collects, catalogues, digitises, and protects primary source material from all aspects of Northumberland’s social, economic and cultural history.
The Northumberland Archives Trust works alongside the Service to sustain, promote and enhance access to Northumberland’s Archives, the county’s most important records from throughout history, for the benefit of people everywhere, now and in the future.
What We Do
Northumberland Archives Trust is a charity set up to support, promote and extend the vital work carried out by the Northumberland Archive Service. Based at Woodhorn, near Ashington, and at Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Service collects, catalogues, digitises, and protects primary source material from all aspects of Northumberland’s social, economic, and cultural history.
The Northumberland Archives Trust works alongside the Service to sustain, promote, and enhance access to Northumberland’s Archives, the county’s most important records from throughout history, for the benefit of people everywhere, now and in the future. We do this by raising interest in the Archives, as well as funds to:
• Help acquire and preserve archival material which would otherwise be destroyed or lost to the county
• Catalogue new and existing records so that people can find what they want in them quickly and easily
• Digitise records, so that they can be accessed online by students, researchers and other interested people anywhere, and
• Promote knowledge and understanding of Northumberland’s Archives as a rich resource for those who want better to understand the past and its relevance to today and tomorrow.
Treasures waiting to be Uncovered
Northumberland has a rich history, much of it recorded, from the time of St Aidan and St. Cuthbert onwards. Forming part of the border between Scotland and England, kings and queens have quarrelled and their armies have fought over it, and historic castles and abbeys litter the landscape. The records of long established families and familiar industries – farming and fishing among them - tell of the struggle of people rich and poor to survive through tumultuous times.
More recently, mining, and heavy industry have left their mark on the landscape as first, the industrial and later, the technological revolution have transformed society. These changes are captured in films and photographs as well as in manuscript, on paper and in digital form. Altogether the County’s Archives already contain over six linear miles of records and are consulted by more than five and a half thousand people each year.
Together these records make up a rich resource for school and university history departments, local history societies and groups, those tracing their family history, and academic and other researchers in the UK and abroad – in short, for anyone who wants to understand the past and its relevance to today and tomorrow. You can catch a glimpse of this rich resource in the online ‘Treasures of the Archives’ exhibition, which you can access through the following link -
https://northumberlandarchives.com/exhibitions/treasures/index.html
How does the Trust fit in?
Keeping and managing those archives in the care of Northumberland County Council is the responsibility of the Council itself. The Trust does not itself manage the Archives, nor does it raise funds and give grants for work which is properly the Council’s responsibility.
However, there are many valuable archives not yet held by the County Archives Service which need to be saved from destruction, and many of those which have been gathered in have yet to be catalogued, preserved and, in the longer term, digitised. While the County Council does its best to help people to access the archives in its care, like other local authorities it struggles adequately to fund all its services. So much more could be done.
Northumberland Archives Trust’s central aim is to improve access for everyone to Northumberland’s Archives. It does this by raising funds to ensure that primary source material is collected, catalogued and digitised, and thus made available for use by people both in the county and far beyond it. The Trust also works with the Archives Service to promote knowledge and understanding of the varied and colourful source material which is available.
Who We Are
Established in 2020, our Trustees and supporters are drawn from throughout Northumberland and beyond
it. We work closely with the County’s Senior Archivists and with other academic and professional advisers
to ensure that the funds we raise are well-spent. Profiles of our Trustees and others can be seen below.
Sue Shaw
Chair
Sue Shaw
Chair
Sue was born in Solihull and attended the King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham. She studied Economics and Law at King’s College Cambridge after which she qualified as a solicitor and spent most of her legal career working for central government.
Morag Boyes
Secretary
Morag Boyes
Secretary
Morag has recently retired from her post as Director of Literacy at a large Academy in Ashington, Northumberland. Her role was to promote and develop literacy throughout primary and secondary education; supporting staff and encouraging children to develop as effective communicators with a love of the written word.
Stuart Bankier
Treasurer
Stuart Bankier
Treasurer
After a career in finance in insurance and food manufacturing Stuart spent twelve years working as a Bursar in an independent school before retiring in 2020. Qualifying as an accountant in 1989, having already taken a degree in Business Studies, his work has encompassed IT, logistics, compliance, maintenance of listed buildings and human resources as well as finance.
Willy Browne-Swinburne
Trustee
Willy Browne-Swinburne
Trustee
Willy Browne-Swinburne is a Northumberland landowner, farmer, and businessman with a deep knowledge of the history of his own family (Swinburne of Capheaton) and many other ancient Northumbrian families. His own family archive is held at Woodhorn and has been substantially reconditioned over the last few years.
John Carr-Ellison
Trustee
John Carr-Ellison
Trustee
After a degree in Economics and Economic History at Durham University, John spent 12 years in the Army. Since 1983 he has been a farmer in north Northumberland and following the collapse of the Soviet Union established farming businesses in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania which have been the primary focus of his attention for the past 25 years. He is a current and past trustee of various charitable trusts and organisations and a past non-executive director of Northumberland Community Health Trust.
Flora Moxon
Trustee
Flora Moxon
Trustee
After studying Archaeology and Medieval History at the University of Southampton, Flora completed a Masters in Archives Management at University College, London. Thereafter, she worked as an Archivist in the Hampshire Records Office, before relocating to Canada where she joined the City of Ottawa’s archives team as an Archivist; subsequently, she was appointed as City Archivist.
Annie Tindley
Trustee
Annie Tindley
Trustee
Annie is Professor of British and Irish Rural History and since November 2020, the Head of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Newcastle University. She joined Newcastle in September 2016 and from December 2017-December 2020 was the Consortium Director for the AHRC Northern Bridge Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership.
John Webster
Trustee
John Webster
Trustee
Born in Aberdeen, John’s scientific career started at Aberdeen University’s Chemistry Department working on a couple of research projects. In 1968 he relocated to Hertfordshire to take up a post at the newly formed laboratory of the Lea Conservancy Catchment Board, and from then on his working life was spent in a water industry environment, initially as an chemist analysing environmental samples for trace contaminants. The river conservancy board later became part of what is the now the Environment Agency.
Linda Bankier
Archivist
Linda Bankier
Archivist
Originally from Northern Ireland, Linda Bankier studied German and Latin at St Andrew’s University before completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Archive Administration. Unusually Linda has spent all her professional career working in Northumberland, initially as an Assistant Archivist at the Northumberland Record Office at Melton Park ( 1986 – 1990) and since then as the Berwick Archivist, running the Berwick-upon-Tweed Record Office.
Sue Wood
Archivist
Sue Wood
Archivist
Born and brought up in the north-east of England, Sue is a graduate in History and English Literature. After graduation Sue took up a role undertaking research for the Trustees of Dove Cottage and a year later took up her first post with Northumberland Archives. She then undertook her professional qualification by distance learning. Sue has continued to work at Northumberland Archives throughout her professional career.