We often receive enquiries about workhouse records. Unfortunately, we only hold a small number of documents for Northumberland as a large percentage of them were destroyed during World War Two. For Morpeth workhouse, the only surviving records are a Guardians Minute book for the years 1902-1905 and a General Ledger for 1923-1930. 

However, among our collection of Morpeth Borough records are papers & plans which were found under the foundation stone of the workhouse when it was demolished in 1951. Included are a full plan of the proposed workhouse building, elevations, contemporary newspapers and a parchment roll naming the Guardians, Workhouse Master and Doctor. The roll also states that the foundation stone was laid on Wednesday 21 February 1866 by Lady Elizabeth Grey.  

On 24 February 1866, the Morpeth Herald reported that the new workhouse had been designed by F.R Wilson who was an architect from Alnwick. It was to occupy the site on which the old workhouse and some adjacent property, recently purchased stood. Lady Elizabeth Grey laid in a cavity in the stone, a jar containing copies of the Newcastle daily papers, the Morpeth Herald, Alnwick Mercury, drawings of the buildings and a parchment roll bearing the names of the officials.

It was also reported that Lady Grey was presented with the silver trowel she had used to lay the foundation stone. The trowel was obtained from Mr Stanley, a Silversmith from Morpeth. The inscription upon it read, “Presented to Lady Elizabeth Grey, by the Guardians of the Morpeth Union, on the occasion of her laying the foundation stone of the new Union Workhouse, Morpeth, Feb. 21, 1866.”

In the afternoon, Lady Grey treated the inmates to an excellent dinner of roast beef and plum pudding.  The room in which they dined was tastefully decorated with evergreens, flags and banners. Three banners bearing the arms of De-Merley, Howard and Grey were hung in prominent places.

My role at Northumberland Archives is two-fold as I work as a Cataloguing Assistant and as an Archives Assistant.  Add the split of working from home and working on site into the mix and it means that my working week is incredibly varied, interesting and there are never two days the same.  To give you an insight into the type of work that gets done, this is what I got up to a couple of weeks ago. 

The Cataloguing Assistant role is workload from one of the Archivists, while working from home it is predominately catalogue based.  This can be adding some of the thousands of records typed up during lock-down to the catalogue, editing existing collections on the catalogue to make them more user-friendly at the front end or adding information that helps colleagues in the back-end system and also attaching photographs to the online records (this in particular I cannot do without the assistance of members of the digitisation team who scan the images first).  Some of the collections added last week include copies of local verses including “Bellingham Show” by W. Bell; documents relating to Shoreston Hall; family photos from Acklington/Guyzance; school permanent files; deeds relating to Berwick-upon-Tweed; boxing brothers the O’Keefe’s; plans from Newcastle and Gateshead Waterworks and papers on the promotion of industrial development in the County.

I also get the opportunity to undertake research for social media and blogs; some topics I am asked to look into and others arise when I come across something interesting and, being curious, I want to know more.  The most recent one I wrote was a short article after watching the episode of the Antiques Roadshow filmed at Woodhorn Museum. 

When on site, the working day depends on whether we are open to the public (we are on Wednesdays and Thursdays for pre-booked sessions).  Working in the searchroom involves opening up; making sure PCs, Reading Room and microfilm readers are all switched on.  Names of researchers are checked against the booking system so we know who is booked in and for what, and pre-ordered documents are put out on desks. Researchers can request a further two items on the day, so when this happens, references are checked to find the correct location (strong room number, shelving unit and shelf number) and the document is retrieved. During half-term there were more people about than usual so we also had people come to the door asking for general advice on our service and also asking to register as a user and obtain an Archives Card.  We close at lunchtime, so we clean work stations, return documents to the strong rooms and the new one’s are retrieved for the afternoon session.   

On a Friday when the searchroom is closed, I work through some of the listing I have been asked to do, most recently this has included some photographic slides of the Corbridge area and marriage registers received following the change to procedures last year.  Since re-opening we have been taking in deposits, on a Friday I will often help the Archivist with this; assisting the depositors bring items inside, re-packaging and boxing items so that they can be given a location in the strongrooms before they are listed, for more straightforward items I can assist with the listing or the paperwork for the accession.  The last couple of Fridays’ I was asked instead to prepare documents for a group session that was being held.  Retrieving in excess of 30 documents certainly is an afternoon’s work; lifting boxes, going up and down the step ladders meant by the end of my working week I definitely felt that I’d had a workout!