My name is Chris, and I’m a new archivist at Northumberland Archives. I was born in Ashington and grew up in Warkworth. When I was 18, I left the rural and sedate surroundings of Northumberland for the bright lights and glamour of, well, Leicester. After graduating I moved to Sheffield, where I worked for the University of Sheffield library for 18 years in several varied roles. For eight years I was based in Special Collections where I was an archivist, Special Collections and Digital Preservation Coordinator, and Digital Preservation Manager.
For many people who move away from home, the idea of one day returning is very often appealing but I would suggest that for those born and bred in Northumberland, or the Northeast in general, the pull of ‘hyem’ is even stronger. And so, despite being quite content in Sheffield, when the opportunity arose earlier this year to return to my native Northeast with family in tow, it was an easy decision to make.
It’s no exaggeration to say that growing up in Northumberland played a huge part in my decision to become an archivist; it’s hard to not take at least a small interest in history and heritage when there’s an imposing sight of Warkworth castle on your doorstop; conjuring images of knights and medieval battles and then in later years, providing a more interesting site to hang around after school than the standard bus stops on offer to most teenagers. Whilst at university, I managed to keep this link to Northumberland’s castles and history by taking jobs at both Chillingham and Alnwick castles during the summer vacations.
Over the years, like many people living away from home, I often found that returning for visits was a slightly strange experience, where things seemed both familiar but slightly alien at the same time. And in fact, that experience of old and new has in a way extended to my first month in post at the archive. I’ve been comforted by the recognizable; the place names of parish registers that I remember from summer holiday days out, the family names from the important estate papers in our collections that our school Houses were named after (from memory I think I was in Deleval house at Amble Middle School). Even spotting the cover of a Blyth Spartans program from a match I very likely attended with my Grandad in 1994 was a wonderful memory. But for all the familiar names and places in the archive there are far more completely new things to take on board; coming from an academic archive background means that many of the types of documents we hold at Woodhorn are relatively new to me, my palaeography (reading old handwriting) skills are somewhat rusty and in fact there is a huge amount of the county of which my knowledge is either out of date, long forgotten, or currently non-existent! So, while the place names are familiar and the archival practices and procedures are those I’m used to, I’m under no illusions as to how much there is to learn, or indeed re-learn. But this so far has been a welcome challenge and one I’m very much enjoying. One month in and I can say that thus far, the decision to ‘come hyem’ has certainly proven to be a good one.
