Since the Society's foundation in 1813 members have donated and bequeathed historic documents, research notes, drawings, maps, plans and photographs to the Society. These manuscript collections are an invaluable source for the history of the North East and contain records of national and international significance.
The majority of the archives are on loan to the Northumberland Archives Service at Woodhorn, Northumberland, and are included in their electronic catalogue under the overall reference SANT, covering nearly 60,000 entries. Most can be consulted there in the public search room, and some have been digitised so that they can be consulted on the Internet. However some of our records, for example modern administrative papers, have restricted access and written permission from the Executive Committee is needed to consult them.
Digitised images and information about some of our more interesting documents are on our separate archives website.
On occasion we loan items for particular events, or give permission for their reproduction. Please contact the Keeper of Collections for information if you would like to pursue this point. Our annual reports give details of the use made of the collections each year.
Our archives website
The archives website contains digitised images of some of our more interesting documents, along with searchable transcriptions. These are
- The 1771 Flood Papers, a bound volume of documents from the relief committee for Northumberland set up after the calamitous floods in North-East England in November 1771, which brought down Newcastle’s medieval bridge and every other bridge on the Tyne except that at Corbridge.
- Relating to the same 1771 flood, the final report of the County Durham Flood Relief Committee
- The 1780-84 Poll Book, a record of the voting in the Newcastle Election of 1780 with additional manuscript notes from the 1784 election, made by the agent for Andrew Stoney Bowes of Gibside in the 1784 Parliamentary election for Newcastle upon Tyne.
- A set of papers and drawings concerning the collapse of the second Hexham Bridge
- A volume of Hexhamshire Wills dating from the 1670s to the end of the reign of Queen Anne.
- Edwarde Potter’s Booke of Phisicke, which dates back to 1610.
There is also an additional section of Extras from our archives and books. Among our 30,000 volumes are a number of books where the authors, or early owners, have added to them with ‘tipped-in’ manuscript pages or illustrations. Some of these are too fragile to be available for public viewing, or only on a very restricted basis, so we are also including this material on the website where it has been digitised - see what’s there so far.
A separate section of the archival site includes a number of our own documents, in particular copies of our News Bulletin and our Annual Reports, and the minutes of Council and Committee meetings (accessible via our Members' Area - login required).
Please note; copyright in all images and transcriptions remains with the Society of Antiquaries in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Acknowledgements and thanks
The digitised copy of the Flood Papers was made by Dr Ria Snowdon for Professor Helen Berry of Newcastle University, and put onto the Antiquaries’ website after a lecture by Professor Berry in February 2015. The Poll Book was one of the exhibits in the Society's bicentennial exhibition in 2013, and the digitisation was funded as part of this, under the Heritage Lottery Fund's overall grant towards our Bicentenary events. A further grant was made available in 2017-18 towards the Unlocking the Archives project.
Technical work on the website databases, and much assistance during the process of uploading the material, was done by our webmasters Cornwell Internet. Transcription was done by volunteers, with co-ordination, editorial work and research by Sue Ward.
Our thanks to all of them.