A Cut Above - September 12th 2011
You are cordially invited to travel back in time to attend the opening of the new harbour at Seaton Sluice on March 20th 1764.
You will meet some fascinating characters and be able to explore this historic event from the perspectives of the rich, poor and in between: from the flamboyant Sir Frances Blake Delaval through to destitute little Alice. Find out what life was like for these 18th century Northumbrians and discover the roles they played within the Delaval Estate at the start of the Industrial Revolution.
This brand new exhibition has been created as the result of months of careful research into the Delaval Archive held at Woodhorn as part of the Working Lives project made possible thanks to the generous support of the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund. The colourful characters and fascinating insight into this groundbreaking event have been created from information found in the archive material.
“Documents in the Delaval archive date from the late 13th century right through to the 19th century,” explained Dr Liz O’Donnell who has been working on the collection, “but we are extremely lucky that so much still exists.”
On 5th January 1822, a dreadful fire broke out at Seaton Delaval Hall, which completely destroyed part of the house. Fortunately, servants managed to save a lot of the contents, including some documents. However, most of Sir John's papers lay forgotten in an old building at Hartley colliery. Seventy years later, the piles of rat-eaten and rotting papers were discovered by chance by John Robinson. He realised their importance and these papers now form the main part of the Delaval archive within the Northumberland Archives at Woodhorn. This important family archive is made up of several different collections, deposited in Northumberland Archives and Berwick Record Office by a number of individuals and organisations over the past forty years.
“We have chosen to illustrate the wealth of information contained in this fascinating archive by focussing the exhibition on one specific event, and of course it paints a wonderful picture of life in the late 1700s too,” said Liz. “In addition, we get a glimpse into the opening of the new harbour which was in itself a remarkable achievement: a great feat of engineering which transformed the small community to a thriving industrial centre right at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.”
The exhibtion runs until 23 December 2011.