Portrait of Spence Watson
Portrait of Robert by Ralph Hedley, currently exhibited in the Shipley Art Gallery
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
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 […]
Robinson Library
The Robinson Library special collections has a great archive of letters from people to the Spence Watsons. These include letters from Arthur Conan Doyle, German revolutionist and writer on politics, history, mythology and German literature Karl Blind, Russian revolutionary Sergius Stepniak amongst others.
Newcastle Library
Bust of Robert Spence Watson at Newcastle main library. The library has a collection about the Spence Watsons which I am yet to explore.
Two FREE Workshops in Bensham
As part of the Spence Watson project I am organising two free workshops and performances at Bensham Grove Community Centre run by artists Stevie Ronnie and Jane Dudman. These workshops are part of the Arts Council funded digital arts and heritage project, ‘The Spence-Watson Archive’, I am currently undertaking with Tyne & Wear Archive and […]
Presentaton at the Digital Cultures Group
I presented this project at the Tyneside Cinema to the Digital Cultures Group on the 13th March. Digital Culture Group
Lit & Phil
The Lit & Phil has quite a good collection of material related to Robert Spence Watson including books of poetry written by him, tracts of speeches that he presented at the Lit & Phil on a variety of subjects as well as a dissertation about Elizabeth Spence Watson which is very helpful for there is […]
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.
Bensham Grove
A few images of Bensham Grove inside and out. The internal photographs show the house after the restoration, which was achieved through a Heritage Lottery grant to try and bring the house back to its Arts & Crafts history as well as keep and maintain it as a working community centre. Also included are a […]
