Sheep Tales

The Sheeptales Project and our own Margaret Brown featured on a radio Newcastle show along with some of the audio archive. You can hear the full piece here:

About 200 viewed the display boards, documents and artefacts at Belford Show.
Many positive comments were received.

Some of our volunteers were lucky enough to be able to visit The Armstrong’s Household and Farming Museum.
North Charlton has become the home of a very special museum - a unique collection of artefacts which chronicle the history and heritage of this part of Northumberland, built up over the last 25 years by owner Sylvia Armstrong, MBE.
Many thanks to Sylvia for hosting a thoroughly enjoyable and informative visit.

Over 600 people visited our exhibition over the course of 2 days. Many read the display boards written and illustrated from the materials collected and archived and took the opportunity to ask questions of the volunteers involved in the project.

Some listened to the oral clips. Some watched projected archive photographs whilst listening to Neil Fairbairn’s interview in our own small cinema. Many more took website details away with them to hear, see and learn more at their leisure.

Demonstrations of spinning, weaving, knitting and early forms of wool craft were carried out by volunteers.

We had the perfect venue at Etal Show on Sunday 2nd September – The Sheep Shed – usually used as shelter by the Joicey’s flock of Hebridean Sheep. Over 100 people visited our exhibition.

Over 800 people visited our stand at The Glendale Show on Monday August 27th in the Countryside Marquee. Many read the display boards written and illustrated from the materials collected and archived. The computers set up to listen to the oral clips and show the archived photographs, were well used. New documents on display proved fascinating to a varied audience. More information has come to light and more material has been offered as a consequence.

Over 200 people had a fantastic afternoon at Kirknewton on Sunday August 19th. The Sheep Tales Exhibition was on display in the Village Hall, complemented by a wool craft exhibition with 8 local craftspeople. This was shown alongside the Open Gardens, where all the garden owners had a good day with lots of positive comments by the visitors. It also accompanied the annual Sheep Dog Trials a legacy of Kirknewton’s village show. It was said that the combination recreated the atmosphere and purpose of the village show, reviving an annual event where everyone got together to share stories and news.

Over 400 people had a wonderful day at Wool in Wooler this July. The Glendale Hall was packed with craftspeople from across the area, including felters, spinners, run-makers, weavers, textile artists and dyers.

The Sheep Tales and Spinning Yarns project has announced the winners of its photographic competition to find the images that best reflect shepherding life at the beginning of the 21st Century. William Comber with a picture of his grandfather on his farm and Bert Keller’s image of Spring lambing were judged to have best captured the essence of life on our local farms today.

The Sheep Tales and Spinning Yarns Exhibition is here!