ETAL VILLAGE HALL ARCHIVE ROOM
Over the years, a large amount of historical information about the local area has been accumulated and been stored away at Etal Village Hall. Much of this, including a lot of old photographs, was gathered together for a local history exhibition that was staged in the hall during summer 2008. This exhibition was put on to mark the 100th anniversary of Etal becoming part of Ford-and-Etal Estates under the ownership of the Joicey family.
In 2023/24 three members of the hall management committee participated in a Village Halls Heritage project led by Community Action Northumberland. This led to the discovery of more specific historical details about the building itself, and ultimately led to the decision to create the book described here, which was released to celebrate the Centenary of Etal Peace Commemoration Hall in January 2026.
The small room on the righthand side as you enter the front door has now been repurposed as a local Archive Room. Here you can find well-organised, labelled folders containing all sorts of local history items from newspaper articles to photos to copies of letters and old documents. A wealth of oral history recordings are also left out next to audio equipment so that these can be listened to in situ. Many of these were recorded around the millennium, others more recently as part of the aforementioned Heritage Project. A few illustrated historical information panels are also on show around the walls of the Archive Room - these were salvaged from the English Heritage museum at Etal Castle when it was de-commissioned.
Four pop-up banners were created in 2024 using information and images collected during the Heritage project, and when not out on display in the main hall these are stored in the Archive Room.
Members of the public are very welcome to visit the Archive Room at any time to browse through the many interesting historical items on display. Just get in touch to let us know if you are interested, and you can be given direct access to the room.