Although slightly outside our usual geographic boundary, Northumberland Archives have recently enjoyed sharing some fantastic images from one of our photographic collections with the residents of Washington, Tyne and Wear. As part of the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of Washington New Town, we worked alongside Washington Heritage Partnership, Wessington U3A and Washington History Society on a project celebrating Paul Hindmarsh’s images of Washington.
Paul Hindmarsh worked as a commercial photographer throughout the northeast and his photography collection of 10,000 negatives is held at Northumberland Archives. He captured images of Washington at various stages of the New Town’s development and provided a photography service for the Corporation’s architects.
As part of the project, we held a series of workshops in the town and invited local history societies and members of the public to view a selection of the Washington images. Attendees were encouraged to share their memories and stories of the New Town’s development and to vote on their favourite images. The most popular images were then turned into a digital exhibition alongside some of the stories that were captured.
The finished exhibition was on display at Washington Arts Centre and Washington Old Hall. It is also available to watch on Northumberland Archive’s Youtube channel
