Programme for 2024-25
All meetings start at 7:30pm in Otterburn Memorial Hall
(Except for the AGM in February, which starts at 7:00pm)
Friday 8th March 2024
Members Evening
Friday 12th April 2024
Susie Finlayson : ‘The Great Tapestry of Scotland’ (Rescheduled from 9th February)
Over 1,000 stitchers worked more than 50,000 hours with enough yarn to scale Ben Nevis 74 times, to create this amazing piece, almost twice the length of the Bayeux tapestry, telling the story of Scotland from pre-history to the present day.
Friday 10th May 2024
Eleanor George : ‘Felton’s gems: the history of Acton House & Acton Hall’
Charting the history of two grand houses in the tiny settlement of Acton, north of Felton, and its fascinating and sometimes scandalour owners and tenants, including a Newcastle MP, one of the first female amateur radio operators and a branch of the notorious Lisle family.
Friday 14th June 2024
Alastair Anderson : ‘Alistair Anderson - my life in music’
A fascinating, personal perspective on the past, present and future of music making in Northumberland and the musicians and characters Alistair has met. This will also include Alistair’s tribute to our late Chair, Tony Pender.
(Rescheduled from September 2023)
July & August: No talks.
Friday 13 September 2024
Barry Mead ‘Monkey business at a Medieval Abbey’
A talk on Barry’s days as an archaeologist excavating medieval abbeys and what life must have been like for the monks that lived and worked there.
Friday 11 October 2024
Professor Paul Frodsham : ‘Belief in the North-East’
Paul will explore what archaeology tells us about belief systems from prehistory to the present, discussing sites in Redesdale, Cumbria and elsewhere.
Friday 1 November 2024
Bill Bland : ‘The history of Ordnance Survey.’
How were the maps we take for granted created in the pre-digital age? The fascinating history of ordnance survey from its origins up to the present day.
Friday 29 November 2024
Bill Burlton : ‘Wildlife and whaling in the Arctic’
Bill will take us to the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, once home of a whaling industry, to see its wildlife, now threatened, because of global warming. The talk will be followed by our pre- Christmas get-together with nibbles and mulled wine).