AN exhibition called Teesdale Chronicles, launched for the Heritage Open Days, has been so successful it has been extended until the end of November.
Staged by Middleton-in-Teesdale’s Fitzhugh Library, the exhibition is a collection of scrapbooks and diaries dating up to 150 years ago.
Cath Maddison, from the library, said the idea came about when the Teesdale Heritage Group donated all of its resources and resident John Wearmouth offered up the collection of scrapbooks his wife, Rose May, had produced before her death.
She added: “We realised how many scrapbooks we have and we started reading them.
“I love the way things interlink. We find something and then that leads us to find something else.”
Mrs Wearmouth’s scrapbooks cover the period between 1950 and 1980 and include weddings, golden wedding anniversaries, obituaries and general items in the dale.
An interesting part of the exhibition is a series of books written by John Wearmouth that features the cottages and farms of Harwood and Forest-in-Teesdale.
Each has a photograph with information about the inhabitants from as far back as the 1861 census.
Ms Maddison said: “Many of them [the buildings] have gone now.”
There are photographs and an account by Stan Cardwell from 1954 when he and others put up the cairns along the Pennine Way.
Another section is dedicated to June Lockhurst, warden of Newbiggin Chapel, who decided to photograph and document every chapel in Teesdale. She also produced a memories book of people who went to the chapels.
Another book features dales ponies working in various roles, including in the coal pits.
Perhaps most peculiar is a scrapbook made using a catalogue of Lancaster Linoleum samples in which someone has carefully preserved newspaper cuttings by pasting them onto the lino patterns.
The exhibition attracted 46 visitors to the Fitzhugh Library over the five Heritage Open Days.
Those who would like to see the exhibition can visit the library, which is above The Village Bookshop, in Market Place, between 10.30am and 2.30pm on Mondays and Tuesdays.
