Get involved in Telling Tales about Gateshead's past

Tyne Derwent Way , 02 October 2024 18:05

The Tyne Derwent Way connects Gateshead's past, present and future - and so do your memories!

The new Telling Tales project was born through conversations with Gateshead's communities. Now it needs your memories and stories of the town and along the route we now know as the Tyne Derwent Way - Gateshead's green getaway.

As it takes shape, Telling Tales will become your podcast and audio guide to the nine-mile route between St Mary's Heritage Centre in Gateshead and National Trust Gibside in the Derwent Valley. Here's more about the project and how you can get involved.

What is Telling Tales about?

There are lots of stories from the past along the Tyne Derwent Way - stories of the people who have lived and worked here, and of the nature that lives along the Tyne and Derwent.

Telling Tales intends to work with volunteers, community members and young people to gather memories and stories of people who have lived along the Tyne Derwent Way to preserve their legacies, as Naz Faraji, Heritage Engagement Officer for the Tyne Derwent Way, explains:

Telling Tales will gather the history of the most significant historical locations and events along the Tyne Derwent Way and mix them with local people's memories and community groups' creative works, such as poems. We're aiming to preserve the past for the future through an audio guide or podcast format.

Telling Tales is designed to be heard - it's a reminder of the past for local people; a way for young generations to find out why we should preserve our environment; a fascinating source of information for visitors and tourists, and anyone who is enthusiastic about the history, culture and heritage of the Tyne Derwent Way and Gateshead."

Six different locations and one event will feature in Telling Tales:

St Mary's Church (Gateshead's mother church)
Dunston Staiths (Europe's largest wooden harbour)
Gateshead's Garden Festival in the 1990s
The Metro Centre (formerly MetroLand)
Crowley Ironworks and Derwenthaugh Park
Gibside Urban Park

Where did Telling Tales come from?

In winter 2023, the Tyne Derwent Way team began a series of community gatherings as part of a project called Pick'n'Mix. During this, we talked to volunteers from 13 different community groups, with 104 people across Gateshead involved during 10 sessions. We asked them to choose their favourite project between five proposals.

The 'Telling Tales' idea got the most votes, followed by 'Gateshead's 50 different things to do before you are 99 and ¾' and 'The Tyne Derwent Way in a Box'. Look out for more about those soon.

What can you expect from Telling Tales?

We imagine Telling Tales as a podcast - you can listen to it when you are having a coffee or driving and want to enjoy the local history and heritage of Gateshead. It's also an audio guide to help you discover the local environment when you are exploring the Tyne Derwent Way.

Telling Tales will have six different episodes. In each episode, our narrator and guide will be one of the young volunteers of the Dunston Drop-In community. First, there will be a brief history of each location, narrated by one of Gateshead's remarkable local historians, followed by the memories of local people. These different memories of different locations, and stories of local people, will be preserved for the future. At the end, there will be a poem, a song or a word of creativity.