Tuesday 25 April 2017

Treasure trove of Teesdale history extends opening hours

A POPULAR archives library in Teesdale is to double its opening hours after securing new volunteer help.
The Fitzhugh Library, in Middleton-in-Teesdale, has more than 70,000 items relevant to the old County Palatinate of Durham, but people have only been able to access the archive for one day a week because of a lack of manpower.
Now with more hands, the library’s many items will be available to the public on Mondays and Tuesdays between 10.30am and 2pm.
The library was started more than two decades ago by renowned archaeologist Denis Coggins, along with Simon Raine, with the aim of collecting local historic material.
It is run by five volunteers.
Trustee Mike Hemingway said the library enjoys a steady trickle of new items being brought in by residents.
Its oldest item is a copy of a newsletter about a disastrous fire in Darlington dating to 1580.
The trustee said: “We have a huge amount of photographs and all the literature is in the 12,000s [items].
“And there are about 20,000 newspaper cuttings, 30,000 photographs and 8,000 other bits and bobs.”
Volunteer John Elliott explained that people can browse a database of the items in the library by visiting the website thefitzhugh
library.co.uk.
Among the items people can explore is a collection of arial photographs of the county taken by the Royal Air Force in the 1960s.
It also boasts a large selection of Ordnance Survey maps dating to 1912.
A photograph collection by former BBC engineer and Teesdale photographer Parkin Raine is also available at the library.
Before moving to its current location above The Village Bookshop, off the B6277,
the Fitzhugh Library was housed at Woodleigh and
The Witham, in Barnard Castle.
The library was forced to move after the art centre underwent refurbishment.
Volunteer Dorothy Barker said anyone who has items that might be of interest to the library can bring them along during opening hours.
She said: “People should at least enquire if they have something.
“We would rather have something we don’t want than miss something we do.”
People who would like to help the library in anyway can contact Mr Hemingway on 01833 650285.

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