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In those days many hill shepherds lived with their families in remote cottages. We did not see them in church very often except at the quarterly Communion Service when the congregation would number fifty or sixty. The Ministry was very much a question of going out to meet people in their homes. The vicar,...

70 children attended the school and were taught in one small room. The fee paid was 4 shillings per quarter, per child. The state grant was an improvement but depended on the children’s knowledge when inspected. Mr Newton was schoolmaster for 40 years. Reading, writing and arithmetic were the only subjects taught. The children...

Memories of living at Rowhope for seventeen years were often of long hard winters, but as years pass I think much more of how close our living there was with nature. The joy after cold winters when the pied wagtail would suddenly arrive on the grass outside our window and sing his heart out,...

My Uncle Thomas owned the Crown Farm in Elston. I would often help out and used to know the names of all the fields – Middle Croft, Stonycroft etc. In August each year I would help Uncle Thomas and the farm workers with the haymaking. The grass would be cut with a reaper pulled...

My mum and dad were living in Horsham when I was born . I lived there for four years before moving to Elsdon in 1936. My dad had been born and brought up in Elsdon. When he moved back to the village, he helped out at my uncle Thomas’s farm. He also had a...

We are keen to receive proposals from artists to work in multiple disciplines, across the visual arts, as well as the written word to create artwork that celebrates OOT as it culminates in an exhibition planned for autumn 2022, that will showcase the dialect and heritage of this unique rural area.

This is an opportunity to create a substantial piece of music as part of the OOT project. You will use our audio, written and image collection as source material to create an original composition exploring the relationship between people, places and the journeys that link them. The final piece should include original lyrics and...

This story from the 1920’s comes from J.R. Hedley Murray. Born at Lorbottle Weststeads, he took over the tenancy at Cartington Bankhead in 1940 then the farm at Cartington in 1946 when the farms were joined. Cartington continues to be farmed by the Murray family. “In those days many arable farms put a quarter...

Mary Murray (1927-1989) was the daughter of Eliza and George Murray. She became Mary Tait in March 1955 upon her marriage to Leslie Tait, from Cramlington, whom she met when he was a shepherd at Uswayford. Kindly and gentle, she lived all her days at Barrowburn, her contented life revolving around the farm, her...

OOT has always aimed to capture the voice of Coquetdale, the unique and distinctive dialect and language from the valley.  Our focus has been on journeys and routes throughout the area and through oral history interviews and recordings, we are building an archive telling stories and sharing memories of how life used to be...

Before the Covid 19 lockdown, our volunteers had interviewed nearly 30 people as part of the OOT Museum project. We feature three new stories from Peter Gale, Anne Dunn and Peter Dawson here.

OOT’s aim is to collect stories and memories to build a legacy about living in Coquetdale. We have had a lot of support from the residents of the valley who want to get involved in some way, either with interviews, giving us photographs, documents and artefacts or by simply keeping talking about times gone...

We have had a busy few months attending all of the local shows and fairs. From Rothbury Street Fair in May, the Music Festival, Powburn, Whittingham, Elsdon, Swarland, Harbottle, Ingram, Thropton to Alwinton, the last and the biggest of the shows we attended, we have spoken to nearly 800 people, visitors as well as...

We have started recording some memories from people who want to share their stories with OOT. Mike Jones, one of our Oral History team, met with shepherd Jon Short from Alwinton who explained how important hill ponies were to both the farms and the shepherds. Read this and more stories here

We will be at every local show and fair over the summer. Come and tell us your memories, share your stories and find out more about OOT.

Thank you to everyone who came along to the OOT Launch on Saturday 27 April at the Jubilee Hall. Nearly 240 people found out more about the OOT Project, many left clutching the butter they made and the proggy & rag rug stall was busy all day. We have already collected new words for...

We are launching the Out of Town (OOT) Museum on Saturday 27 April from 11 am at the Jubilee Institute in Rothbury. Come along and see our plans for OOT, have a go at rag rugging and making butter, guess the object and tell us about your memories, journeys and stories.

The Out of Town (OOT) Museum will celebrate and record the routes and journeys across Upper Coquetdale. What better way to remember times gone by than taking a ride on a Bristol L5G single decker? Built in 1949, restored to full glory in 1996, this is the way to travel. Free rides from Rothbury...

Project Manager Sally Brewis has been appointed to lead the Out of Town (OOT) Museum project for the award winning Bailiffgate Museum and Gallery Working with individuals and community groups in the Coquetdale area, Sally will be overseeing the Out of Town (OOT) Museum project, funded by a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, focussing...