NHSN Heritage Researcher Mel Tuckett explores some of the stories from our ‘Treasures of the Archives’ events

Finding and sharing stories is a powerful yet intimate way in which we all can share and connect. Stories enable us to create links across time and place through empathy, shared interests and new experiences. Here at NHSN, our Nature’s Cure Project is working to share the stories found within the North East Nature Archive. Made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, our project aims to reveal the often-hidden lives and works preserved within the archive so that they can be enjoyed by all. Alongside this we are also dedicated to developing and strengthening the archive by including the stories of today’s North East nature lovers and the benefits they get from nature. By encouraging everyone to add their voices to the archive, we can grow it to reflect the amazing diversity of the North East today.
As part of this project, we were therefore very excited to be able to welcome Members and friends to the first of a series of Treasures of the Archive events here at the Museum. These sessions are a chance for everyone to experience and learn about our collection of natural history books, artworks and journals. They also give everyone the opportunity to write their stories of North East nature and to share the thoughts, experiences and hopefully benefits it has brought them.

The North East Nature Archive has its roots as the records of a Victorian gentleman’s club, one heavily influenced by the success of Tyneside engraver and naturalist Thomas Bewick. Some of his original woodblocks were on display. Bewick’s story is one of a local man of humble beginnings whose skills enabled him to become nationally famous and respected.




In contrast, the story of Sarah Dickson, a woman working during the same period, seems to have been lost. The beauty of her fungi watercolours speak of her great love of nature but her history was sadly not recorded. Find out more about Dickson’s work here.



Today, the Nature’s Cure events are bringing younger and more multicultural voices into the archive. To represent this, there was a chance to see the work produced by women from the Young Women’s Outreach Project in Gateshead. In their nature journals, they bring some refreshing alternative perspectives on the nature they see around them in the city.


Find out more about this here.
After spending time with the archive materials, there was a chance for everyone to contribute their voice to the archive. Thank you to all those who took part and gave us their inspiring stories. Beautifully personal, direct and often profound, they will now be preserved for future generations.
“My aim in enjoying nature is to try and connect with the everyday. To look and listen to the more common-place but every time hear and look anew. There is no denying the thrill of hearing or seeing something unexpected or fervently hoped for.
Alison Whalley
The hoped for happened to me on Iona in April 2019. My husband and myself were volunteering at a hostel and we knew corncrakes bred in the surrounding grounds. I was washing up one evening when I heard that unique sound “Wex, Wex”. I rushed out and there one was, scurrying beneath the kitchen window.
The unexpected was in the Eden Valley, July 2011, on a beautiful sunny, blue-skyed day on open limestone moor, a skylark lifted up and gave me the most magical music I have ever heard. I was blest. Thank you nature.”
“Air. Stepping outside and feeling astringent fresh air immediately changes my mood and senses. Alertness follows.
Frances Hinton
I remember a very hot June day, when I was leading a wildlife watch group of children. Suddenly a bat fell from a high chimney and floundered at our feet. Knowing that a registered bat handler was needed, I turned and asked the group: sure enough a guy stepped forward. He examined it, noted that it was a young pipistrelle, and that it was almost certainly overheated. We worked out how to deal with it safely. All the children were fascinated and had learned to respect a fellow mammal and its needs, to recognise the environment it needed, and the extra support required in an urban environment. And that was simply one highlight of a wonderful day, breathing fresh air, and tuning in to whatever happened in the natural world around us.”
“I will never see, a thing so beautiful as a tree. I always like being in the countryside. It calms your mind.”
Wendy Boulton

“Nature is the past, the present and hopefully the future? Thank goodness for groups like the NHSN and the people who support these groups.”
John Christopher Murray
Like John we also hope that nature will be a thriving part of our future. We feel that by sharing stories from the past and the present, nature’s future will be more secure. As we make connections between people and across time, we hope that our community will be stronger, and we can give nature the support it so desperately needs.
The next of these sessions is on Tuesday 28th January at 14.30. To book a place, please either subscribe to Eventbrite, email NHSN@ncl.ac.uk or click here.
If you would like to share your stories online please use this link.
