If you haven’t yet visited the ‘Tales of Antiquarian Adventure, 1813-2013’  exhibition at the Great North Museum, Newcastle, you still have a few weeks to go before it closes on the 30th April. 

This is a really good exhibition, beautifully presented and well worth a visit to see the variety of artifacts collected by these Newcastle visionaries.

Without the formation of this group in 1813 over a few pints in the Turks Head, we would no longer have the city’s Castle Keep and there would be a gaping hole of a quarry in the middle of Hadrian’s wall, to mention just a few of the narrowly averted atrocities.

A personal favourite of mine was the map of Newcastle’s fortifications, painted on silk in 1638. Other treasures are on loan to museums in Oxford and London. Hopefully we’ll see more of this collection displayed in the future.