What’s On

A volunteer lead exhibition which takes a broad look at the Merchant Navy during the 20th and 21st centuries and the very big part it played and still plays in the lives of people on both sides of the Tyne.

The exhibition materials cover everything from local shipping companies and repair yards, the world wars, the support and training offered to visiting seafarers of all nations, a boarding school for children who had lost a parent in the service, the Merchant Navy of today and the future, as well as stories from individuals and families.

£4 / free for members

Explore the history of Clifford’s Fort between 1536 and 2021, the Tyne Lifeboats, RNLI Lifeboats, Shipwrecks and Tyne Harbour

£4.00

Mindfulness Drop-In Class lead by Michael Atkinson of the The Centre for Mindfulness and Wellbeing.

Donation (Suggest £3-£5).

Expert willow weaver, Lorraine Griffiths, is returning to the Old Low Light Heritage Centre to demonstrate how to make ‘tension trays’ and ‘Catalan platters’. Materials and tools will be provided, and participants should be able to make both a tray and a platter each during the session. The session is suitable for both new and experienced willow weavers.

£30 pp + booking fee

As part of our programme to commemorate the bi-centenary of the RNLI, Dorothy Brownlee, will talk about how in the early 20th century, lifeboat history was made on Clifford’s Fort on North Shields Fish Quay.

Dorothy, a founding trustee of the Old Low Light Heritage Centre, will describe how the RNLI chose Lieutenant Herbert Burton, a talented officer in the Royal Engineers that were stationed at Clifford’s Fort, to introduce the first motorised lifeboat at North Shields.

Lieutenant Burton, who later became Major Burton, was a key figure in the success of the Tyne Electrical Engineers.

£4pp, members half price

Classic car enthusiasts, gardeners and people with an interest in local history should pay a visit to North Shields Fish Quay on Sunday 19 May 2024.

Free

The Haswell name is well respected in the history of North Shields, and while it is usually linked to The Maister, Thomas Haswell, the principal teacher at the Jubilee School for many years, this talk is about another Haswell who also left his mark on the town, the architect Robert Francis Newton Haswell.

Old Low Light trustee, Stuart Barlow, will explain how F R N Haswell was the son of a Methodist minister who came to North Shields, after completing his apprenticeship with a Darlington architect, to establish his own architectural practice, designing many buildings in the North Shields/Tynemouth area, and elsewhere, for over 50 years.

He also became a leading civic figure in North Shields and his story tells much about the town at the end of the 19th century, its social aspects as well as its buildings.

£4 / members free

Explore the history of Clifford’s Fort & the Tynemouth Lifeboats. (For 10 People - 1Hour Walk).

£4.00

Green fingered volunteers and friends of the Old Low Light Heritage Centre are preparing for their first big plant sale of the year. Come along early for bargains to add colour to your garden and help raise funds for the heritage centre at the same time. There will also be vegetable and herb plants, all reasonably priced.

Mindfulness Drop-In Class lead by Michael Atkinson of the The Centre for Mindfulness and Wellbeing.

Donation (Suggest £3-£5).

Pat Stevens will talk about Geordie Ridley, the Tyneside concert hall songwriter and performer from the mid-19th century, whose songs were a commentary on working class life, the most well-known being Geordie anthems ‘The Blaydon Races’ and ‘Cushie Butterfield’.

Pat will reflect on how Geordie began song writing after an accident at work, singing in music halls and mining institutes across Tyneside at a time when many people were living in poverty, while at the same time great changes were taking place, with some people prospering.

£4 / members half price

Former Old Low Light trustee and local historian Dave Young to understand the part the Tyne played in what would become known as America’s Second Revolution.

£4 / members free

Explore the history of Clifford’s Fort & the Tynemouth Lifeboats. (For 10 People - 1Hour Walk).

£4.00

It is a pleasure to welcome back Jean Scott who will talk about how lords, legends, dignitaries and dogs were all subjects captured by the brush and palette of H.H Emmerson, a father figure among North East artists.

Like many of his fellow artists, he drew on the local inhabitants of Cullercoats for inspiration.

£4 / members half price