Latest News

Walk in the footsteps and hear the stories and memories of people who have lived, worked and played high up in the Coquet Valley The Out of Town Museum (OOT ) has been collecting memories and photographs to capture the stories and tales told about how life used to be in the valley and...

Watch and listen to this wonderfully stirring musical film, inspired by the collective stories, landscape and voices of Coquetdale. An extraordinary journeyThe Out of Town Museum commissioned local composer and folk musician Ian Stephenson to create this new and unique aural and visual journey through the valley. The soundtrack features Ian and fellow Northumbrian...

We have already welcomed over 270 visitors to the OOT exhibition as we visit Village Halls in Coquetdale. Thropton is on Saturday 29th from 10am until 4pm with a guided “Walk in their Shoes” starting at 12 noon. You can read and hear stories and memories of people who have lived and live in...

Alwinton Border Shepherds Show – 2000 Memories – footage from 2000 of the largest of the Coquetdale Shows, always held the second Saturday in October.

Thank you to everyone who came to our first exhibition at Elsdon on 1st April. We have had some lovely feedback about our interactive content and beautiful music and images. Next up is Rothbury on Saturday 15th April in the URC Hall with have a go Quoits and Rag rugging. Open from 10am-4pm with...

Look out!  The Out of Town Museum (OOT) will be touring Coquetdale in April and May visiting Elsdon (01/04), Rothbury (15/04), Hepple (22/04), Thropton (29/4), Alnham (3/5)m Netherton (13/5) and Harbottle (18/5). The OOT Museum is a National Lottery Heritage funded project which celebrates the rural heritage of Coquetdale; capturing the stories of people...

Here are the answers to our words. Did you guess them? 1 – Bulls’ snouts Tufts of thick grass 2 – Cuddswitted Left handed 3 – Yett Gate 4 – Canny Nice or cleaver 5 – Deek Look 6 – Rake Around Wander 7 – Owalt Sheep on its back 8 – Spelk Splinter...

After two years, OOT are delighted to be heading back to all the shows and fairs this year. Look forward to seeing you there!

The 2022 Rothbury Traditional Music Festival is on Friday 15th – Sunday 17th July with a line up which includes The Damien Mullane trio, Eryn Rae & Scott Turnbull, Cameron Nixon, Ken Wilson, Andy May plus Johnny Handle & Chris Hendry. Did somebody mention bagpipes? Of course there will be marching and piping from...

Come dancing with Alistair Anderson and the 422 band in Netherton Village Hall Learn some of the old dances beforehand in the workshop from 6.30pm – 7.30 pm, Main Dance starts at 8.00 pm Bar. Ticket prices includes supper from from Netherton WI. Tickets only £8 adults, £4 children. Please contact Sally on 07876...

Between the years 1924 – 29 my family (father, mother and five children) spent the month of August on holiday in Harbottle. We stayed at the Cherry Tree House which was occupied then by the grandparents of John Common, the postman. Old Mr. Common looked after the farm and his wife was a splendid...

It was in September 1929 that my wife Gladys and I, she driving her 1913 Morris Oxford, decided to explore beyond Rothbury. The sun was setting as we came to the top of Sharperton Bank. She caught her breath at the glory before her: “The land of Beulah” she said – the last stopping place where pilgrims rest...

With that expression I can hear the sound of the steel blades of hand-shears clicking away at soft white fleece, and the more precise term “shearing” brings to mind the whirr of the electric machines. Clipping time to us was early 1960’s when Rowhope and Trows were handclipped by a gang of hired clippers....

Towards the end of the 1914 -18 war, the East and West Woods were felled by Canadian lumberjacks; their camp was in the small field by the Back Burn. The timber was led to Rothbury railway station by a pale wagon drawn by a team of Canadian horses. The Presbyterian Minister lived in the...

Curlew gliding o’er the heather,Soft in melting cadence crieds,Tearing at the very heartstringsPouring beauty from the skies. High above, the green-backed plover,Fluting spins its magic spellO’er the silence of the water,At the quiet “Ladies’ Well”. All the lilting liquid rhythmsStored within the shepherd’s heartSkilfully he shaped and polished,Strung them with a craftsman’s art. Now...

It was in 1979 that the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority became interested in our part of the world. There was a problem. Quantities of highly radioactive waste were piling up and the AEA did not know what to do with it. One suggestion was to bury it in granite rock providing that the granite was in a...

When we were first married and came to live in Harbottle there seemed to be an aura of romance in the fact that there was no electricity; we had wisely included paraffin lamps on our wedding present list. However in 1953 the village became electrified, except for us. The Presbyterian Church could not afford...

Following the last World War, it was, for a number of years, the practice of a party of Labour Members of Parliament to walk, each Whit weekend, successive sections of the Pennine Way. They had begun in Derbyshire and by 1950 it fell for them to complete the final stretch in the Cheviot hills....

It was the Glorious Twelfth and the sun shining, promising a hot day. Gathered on the gravel drive in front of the grey stone mansion are family, friends, excited children, dogs, keepers and beaters. Among them stands a boy in a brown checked knickerbocker suit nervously handling his gun. It is to be his...

I was always interested in wrestling from a boy but never had much of a chance to learn properly. Then about the summer of 1947, a few of us lads got together one night a week at Campville  – Jimmy Wood’s place. We used to run, jump, and wrestle – in our own style....