A group of sixth form students have successfully completed voluntary work with Greater Morpeth Development Trust to develop the first of the town’s new history displays.  The team have spent the last nine months researching and designing five new local history display boards for the town. 

King Edward’s students are encouraged to look outside school for voluntary activities in order to help prepare them for life beyond school. This project provided the perfect opportunity to get involved in something new, different and challenging that would create a difference in our town.

With the help of experts from various heritage groups in Morpeth, this project has presented our students with the opportunity to learn a great deal about people and places. They travelled to Newcastle to meet students doing History degrees at Newcastle University and explore common grounds for research. They worked with staff at County Hall to discuss ideas and plans for developing a new history website which now works alongside the displays at St Mary’s Church. 

As part of their research stage, they not only visited places, but also hosted guests in school and met with Nigel Collingwood and Paul MacDonald from the Collingwood society, Mike Booth, a local volunteer with the Commonwealth War Graves Commision. Andrew Tebbutt on behalf of the Emily Davison family; Frances Povey from NCC Green spaces and Dr Marie Addyman, a specialist in the history of William Turner and the Carlisle Park Tudor and Physic garden dedicated to Turner. 

On Wednesday afternoon, 17th July 2024, their research and design work came to fruition as the first three of the town’s new history displays were unveiled. The first display highlights the history of the church itself. The second display is about some of the Notable Morpethians buried in the churchyard with information about various people including the Epsom races winner jockey Ralph Bullock and the suffragette Emily Davison. The final display in the churchyard is about the many different types of war graves, WW1, WW2, Polish war graves, the RAF at Tranwell Woods and other background stories. The next two displays dedicated to Admiral Lord Collingwood and William Turner are due to be launched between September and October this year. 

Our thanks to Dai and the GMDT for offering this opportunity to the students in our school. Thanks also go to all the people behind the scenes from the town’s Heritage network that helped to advise and check the displays for any mistakes.  Special thanks to our guests representing the Collingwood society, the Friends of William Turner, the  Emily Davison family and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for all their personal insights and stories. Thanks must also go to the staff at County Hall for all of their support and to Darren Turner from cbsworld for his design advice and guidance. 

Together, we’ve helped to bring our town’s history alive.