There was an amazing response to the call for volunteers to join the Twixt Thistle and Rose project with about 40 people of all ages coming to the two introductory sessions held last week.
They heard about the opportunities to get involved from Teresa and Linda, including transcribing, typing up, helping with cataloguing, or repackaging documents from the Borough Archive which detail the running of Berwick from the day to day to longer term building projects.
There was the chance to look at the account book from 1611 for the Old Bridge when it was the new bridge! Or the need to repair the Town Hall 200 years ago. Or look at the ‘wanted posters’ sent to the Berwick police force, which was independent from Northumberland service until the 1020s, from around Britain. A glimpse of crimes and suspects over a century and a half ago. Or taking it a step further, looking at the documents from the Quarter Sessions.
There will be a short series of training sessions to pick up or brush up palaeography skills for those wanting to work with the hand written documents and then dedicated weekly sessions in the archive search room on Tuesday afternoons or project work can be done on Wednesday or Thursday, the public access days. Volunteers don’t have to commit to every week, just a reasonable number of sessions over the year. There is still time to get involved…….just get in touch!