Northumberland's Belford Now Has A Permanent Exhibition Of History

With a ceremonial cutting of ribbons, the Northumberland village of Belford has just celebrated the establishment of its own permanent exhibition exploring the hidden history of the village. Located in the 100 year old Reading Room, the project has come to fruition thanks to a £25,000 grant from the National Lottery Village SOS scheme and a further £5,000 from the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership.

There was a happy band of some 60 people present when Majorie MacDonald performed the ceremony last Friday. Marjorie , a local lady, has invested most of her life in supporting the Belford community in so many ways and whose Belford-based family can be traced back to the 19th century. All of this has come to fruition as a result of many months of work and preparation by Belford Community Group’s Hidden History sub-committee.

Fiona Renner-Thompson, whose previous history exhibitions have led to this great achievement for the village, thanked the Reading Room trustees and committee and all who had helped provide material for the exhibition and the team of workers which had made the exhibition a reality.

With her extensive local knowledge, Majorie was able to reveal that the Reading Room had at various times been the home for people who could go in and read their papers, the base of several very successful snooker and billiard teams, and the place for many fund-raising events. It would now fulfill a new function in housing the artefacts, photographs, writings and a computer-based interactive display of the history of the Belford area.

Majorie also asked Dr George MacDonald, a descendant of the long line of Belford Drs MacDonald, to present the Pitt Cup on loan to the exhibition. The cup was first presented for billiards in 1925 and finally won by her husband James MacDonald, who beat local dentist Geoff Stephenson.
She paid tribute to ‘an excellent job done by a dedicated few’ before cutting the ribbon.

The guests took the chance to look around the exhibition and completed their visit with refreshments in St Mary’s church gallery where they also enjoyed the work of local historian, Joan Wright, whose photographic history displays have become a permanent feature of the church.

The Belford and District Hidden History Exhibition is open daily from 10am and is free, although donations are welcome to assist with heating and lighting costs.

The grants to put the Reading Room back into use were allocated in April and the exhibition had opened in September to coincide with with Heritage Open Days in the village.

Belford is located between Alnwick and Berwick-on-Tweed, not too far from the east coast. Its history is well reflected in attractions such as Belford Hall, a Grade I listed Palladian style eighteenth century mansion house, and Spindlestone Ducket Mill, an 18th century tapering cylindrical stone tower with a conical roof of Welsh slate. Its previous usage is uncertain.

Westhall is a privately owned Victorian house built in the style of the castellated fortified house that it replaced on the same site. The moat that surrounded the original building can still clearly be seen. It is now in use as a farmhouse.