Guest blogger for TWAM

Guest blogger for TWAM

Tyne & Wear Archives invited me to be a guest blogger on their website to write and present the Spence Watson Archive Project. You can read the article here.  

Hannah Festival: Somehow it Began to Change When we Talked about Mrs Spence Watson

Hannah Festival: Somehow it Began to Change When we Talked about Mrs Spence Watson

Somehow it Began to Change When we Talked about Mrs Spence includes recordings of poetry created by participants of Stevie Ronnie’s workshop, Voices of Bensham Grove that took place on the 7 April 2014. To celebrate the launch of the Hannah Festival (3-8 June 2014) The Spence Watson Archive Project will preview some of the […]

List of Vistors to Bensham Grove

Posted by on May 7, 2014 in Blog, Tyne & Wear Archive, Visitors | No Comments
List of Vistors to Bensham Grove

Here is a (incomplete) list of visitors to Bensham Grove at the time of Robert and Elizabeth living in the house. Most of these would be staying at the house when theye were speaking at either the Lit & Phil, the University or for the Liberal Party. Some would have just been invited by Robert […]

The Voices of Bensham Grove

The Voices of Bensham Grove

Stevie Ronnie’s creative writing workshop working with local people at Bensham Grove on the 7th April. Stevie used archival material about the visitors to the house during the Spence Watson’s time there, a number of letters found in Tyne & Wear Archives and the Robinson Library Special Collection. He also researched the quotes from Elizabeth […]

Echoes of Bensham Grove

Echoes of Bensham Grove

On the 17th April, Pete Ross, the Scribblers group and some of Progressive Players of the Little Theatre performed and read poetry, plays and spoken word inspired by Bensham Grove and a visit to the Tyne & Wear Archives to research the Spence Watson collection. Sound artist Nick Williams interviewed and created an audioscape of […]

Scribblers visiting Tyne & Wear Archive

Posted by on Feb 28, 2014 in Blog, Echoes, Scribblers, Tyne & Wear Archive | No Comments
Scribblers visiting Tyne & Wear Archive

The Scribblers writing group visiting Tyne & Wear Archive, some for the first time, on the 27th February, to get inspiration for their writing for the Echoes of Bensham Grove event on the 17th April.

Tyne & Wear Archive

Tyne & Wear Archive

I have been spending time in Tyne & Wear Archive researching the collections of the Spence Watson family, in particular the letters sent between Robert and Elizabeth and their daughter Mabel. The collection includes roughly a thousand letters between the family members, a book of reminisces dictated by Robert to one of his clerks, a […]