PEOPLE of the upper Gaunless Valley from yesteryear are to be celebrated in a new exhibition to mark the National Heritage Open Days weekend.
Hosted by the Gaunless Valley History Trust, the display will feature images of families, tradespeople, sports teams and many more.
Since it was formed in 1987 the trust has focussed mainly on the history of Southside, Butterknowle, Copley and Woodland, and has staged a variety of themed exhibitions over the years.
The idea of the theme of people came about as part of a bid to get names for many of the unidentified folk who appear in the trust’s archive of historic photographs.
Chris Mills, from the group, said: “We had a meeting and went through all of our photographs. We took everything out that had groups of people, whether they had names on them or not, because we are hoping that some of the ones without names might be identified.”
Since the meeting the trust has come into possession of a large team photograph of a Butterknowle football team that won a cup through Durham Social Services in 1921 for which there are also no names.
Jeanette Newell, one of the trust’s founding members said: “Hopefully someone will know who they are.”
She added that the photographs chosen for the display had been divided up according to the village they are associated with to help with identification.
Many families with a long history in the upper Gaunless Valley feature in many of the photographs. Mrs Newell said: “There is a big contingent of Simpsons. They have been in the village for years, going back generations.”
Mr Mills added: “It is not so much photographs just of that family, when you look at a sports photograph or a schools photograph or an event photograph, some of the same family are in most of them.”
Others that feature often are the Tallentire and Bainbridge families.
Help for people who want to research their family tree will also be part of the two-day event on September 14 and 15.
Mrs Newell, a former librarian, will be on hand to guide people to various genealogy and research websites.
Coinciding with Heritage Open Days, the exhibition takes place at Butterknowle Village Hall between 10 and 4pm. People are encouraged to take along any historic photographs so the trust can make copies for their archive.
l Full round-up of Heritage Open Day events on pages 16 and 17.
