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Spring 2026 Newsletter Now Available

The Ballast Hills Burial Ground Spring 2026 Newsletter is now available, and it is one of our fullest updates yet.

This issue looks back over a busy start to the year and brings together the many strands of work helping to uncover, care for, and share the histories of Ballast Hills. From cholera, coins, and a colliery explosion to archive discoveries, volunteer reflections, Green Days, public talks, and the Newcastle University Engagement and Place Award win, the newsletter offers a rich snapshot of the project’s recent activity.

The issue also looks ahead to a busy programme of activity in the months to come, including community events, transcription opportunities, volunteering, and plans for Heritage Open Days. We hope it gives a sense of the energy, generosity, curiosity, and care that continue to shape the Ballast Hills Burial Ground project.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this issue and to the wider project. We are grateful for the time, knowledge, stories, and support that so many people continue to share.

Read the Spring 2026 newsletter here: Ballast Hills Burial Ground Spring 2026

If you missed earlier issues, the full set of Ballast Hills Burial Ground newsletters can be found here.

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BHBG Project wins Engagement and Place Award

We are delighted to share that Ballast Hills Burial Ground has won a Newcastle University Engagement and Place Award in the category Engaging for Cultural Benefit.

The Engagement and Place Awards celebrate the connections, curiosity, and care that shape meaningful engagement between the University, partners, and wider communities. For Ballast Hills, this recognition reflects the collective work of volunteers, students, descendants, local residents, family historians, heritage partners, researchers, and community groups who have helped reconnect the burial ground with the people, histories, and responsibilities it continues to hold.

We were proud to be shortlisted alongside two inspiring projects: From Collections to Climate Change, led by Dr Kristin Hussey and Dr Clare Hickman, and Listening to the Voices of the Rivers, led by Dr Giuliana Borea. Together, the shortlisted projects show the richness of cultural engagement taking place across Newcastle University, from museums and environmental interpretation to Indigenous philosophies, community dialogue, and funerary heritage. More information about the 2026 winners and shortlisted projects can be found on the Newcastle University Engagement and Place Awards page.

This award comes at an important moment. The AHRC Curiosity Award funding that has supported this phase of the project comes to an end in June 2026, but the work will continue. The project has created a strong foundation for future research, interpretation, conservation, and community engagement.

We are grateful to everyone who has contributed to Ballast Hills Burial Ground with such generosity, knowledge, and care. Thank you to our partners, volunteers, supporters, and all those who have shared memories, research, questions, and commitment. This award belongs to the wider community of people helping to make Ballast Hills visible again.

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🌿 Green Days at Ballast Hills 🌿

We are launching regular Tuesday Green Days at BHBG, starting on the first Tuesday of each month.

🕡 Time: 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm

Meet at the painted shipping container behind the Ship Inn at 6:30 pm, or at Ballast Hills at approximately 6:45 pm. We may stay a little longer as the evenings get lighter and if it feels right on the day.

📅 Upcoming dates (2026): 5 May, 2 June, 7 July, 4 August, 1 September

These sessions are a collaborative volunteering effort between the BHBG project and the Ouseburn Trust Environmental Group, focused on caring for the site in a relaxed and social way.

You do not need to bring any equipment, as everything will be provided. Please wear suitable outdoor clothing, and feel free to bring your favourite gloves.

All are welcome, whether you can join regularly or just drop in when you are able.

Come along, get involved, and spend some time helping care for this unique historic landscape.

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Ballast Hills Burial Ground Project Shortlisted for Engagement and Place Awards 2026

We are delighted to share that the Ballast Hills Burial Ground (BHBG) project has been shortlisted for Newcastle University’s Engagement and Place Awards 2026 in the category Engaging for Cultural Benefit.

This recognition highlights the central role that engagement has played throughout the project. From the outset, BHBG has brought together local residents, descendants, students, volunteers, and partner organisations to rediscover and reframe one of Newcastle’s most significant, yet often overlooked, historic burial sites. Through archival research, fieldwork, creative activity, and shared learning, the project continues to reconnect people with the histories and meanings embedded in this landscape.

Being shortlisted is a real milestone, and it reflects the collective effort behind the project. A huge thank you goes to everyone who has contributed to making this possible, including our project partners, volunteers, students, and the many individuals and communities who have shared their time, knowledge, and stories. This recognition belongs to all of you.

We will share updates as the awards process continues, but in the meantime, we encourage anyone interested to get involved in the project.

We are also pleased to be launching a new opportunity to take part through Green Days at BHBG, developed in partnership with the Ouseburn Environment Group. These sessions will take place on the first Tuesday of each month, offering a chance to spend time on site, contribute to its care, and learn more about its history in a relaxed and welcoming setting. Further details will be shared in an upcoming post, so please look out for more information soon.

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25 March: A Date that Structured the Year, and the Records We Rely On

For much of England’s history, the year did not begin on 1 January. Instead, it began on 25 March, a date known as Lady Day. This marked the Feast of the Annunciation and, until the reforms introduced by Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, it served as the official start of the legal year.

This older way of structuring time still shapes the records that historians rely on today. Dates recorded between 1 January and 24 March in pre-1752 documents often fall within what would now be considered the following year. A burial recorded as February 1740 may, in modern terms, be February 1741. Some documents reflect this through double dating, such as 1740/41, although many do not.

Lady Day also structured how death itself was counted. The Bills of Mortality, which recorded burials, were often issued weekly and compiled into annual summaries. These annual totals followed the legal year, running from 25 March to 24 March. A “yearly” total therefore reflects deaths recorded between one Lady Day and the next.

This system has important implications. Mortality data for January and February appear at the end of the reporting year rather than the beginning. Patterns of disease, seasonal mortality, and year-on-year comparisons require careful interpretation to avoid misreading the sequence of events.

For Ballast Hills Burial Ground, this matters in practical ways. The burial ground emerged in the early to mid seventeenth century, when this system remained in use. Early burial records, parish registers, and related archival material often follow the Lady Day convention. Without recognising this, clusters of burials can appear misleading, and family timelines can shift out of alignment.

Attention to dating conventions restores the rhythm of the past. Winter mortality can be understood in its proper sequence, and life events can be placed in the order in which they were experienced rather than recorded.

Lady Day no longer marks the start of the year, yet it remains present in the records. It shapes how lives are reconstructed and how histories are written. Careful reading allows that older structure of time to become visible again, offering a clearer understanding of the people and communities connected to Ballast Hills Burial Ground.

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Join the Ballast Hills Burial Ground Project at Home Educators Day

The Ballast Hills Burial Ground Project will be taking part in Home Educators Day at the Great North Museum: Hancock (GNM:H) on 13 February 2026, offering hands-on activities and a rolling presentation designed for home-educating families.

Discover how a burial ground becomes a classroom

Using Ballast Hills Burial Ground as a case study, we will show how burial sites can support cross-curricular learning across history, literacy, numeracy, geography, and creative work. While we draw on Ballast Hills, families and educators can apply the same ideas to their own local cemetery or burial ground.

Activities throughout the day

Design your own gravestone
Explore how inscriptions, symbols, and materials tell stories about people’s lives, then create your own design.

Build a family tree
Map out your family connections and discover how ancestry is traced through records, stories, and archives.

Historical occupations challenge
Interpret real job titles recorded at Ballast Hills and explore how work and society have changed over time.

Education Activity Sheet: Bringing the Evidence Together
A guided set of activities will help students and families to investigate how different types of evidence connect. Topics include:

  • Bills of mortality and how deaths were recorded
  • What graves tell us about families and relationships
  • Dates, ages, and life expectancy
  • Living conditions and longevity
  • Memory, forgetting, and who is remembered
  • Walking on history and recognising hidden landscapes
  • Bringing different sources together to build a fuller picture of the past

Explorer’s Guide
Take away ideas and prompts for visiting and studying your own local burial ground, turning it into a place of ongoing learning.

Running Presentation
A short, rolling presentation will run throughout the day, introducing Ballast Hills Burial Ground and demonstrating how one site can support a wide range of curriculum-linked activities. Drop in at any time.

Why take part

  • Activities suitable for a range of ages and abilities
  • Practical ideas for cross-curricular learning at home
  • Opportunities to connect history with real places and real people
  • Resources you can take away and use in your own local area

Event details

  • Date: 13 February 2026
  • Time: 9:00 to 14:00 (quiet hour from 9:00–10:00)
  • Location: Great North Museum: Hancock

Join us for a day of discovery, creativity, and learning through place. If you have any further questions about this event, please contact a member of the Learning team at the GNM:H by email: learning@greatnorthmuseum.org.uk.

Part of the Ballast Hills Burial Ground Project: unlocking the past, enjoying the present, and planning for the future.

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December Newsletter Now Available: Reflection, Growth, and What Comes Next

The latest edition of the Ballast Hills Burial Ground newsletter is now available to read online: December 2025 Newsletter.

December offers a moment to pause and take stock of the work that has unfolded across the project. Following a short break in November, this issue brings together activity that has continued behind the scenes, particularly across archive research, data development, and planning for the next phase through to June 2026.

This edition reflects a project that continues to grow in both scale and depth. New student interns and volunteers have joined the archive and digital work, strengthening the capacity to enhance catalogue records, develop research notes, and expand the project dataset. This collective effort supports a shared aim to make the evidence for Ballast Hills Burial Ground more accessible, more usable, and more meaningful for future research and interpretation.

Alongside this, attention has turned to how the project communicates its work. A small media refresh will begin in the new year, helping to connect the blog, Instagram, and Facebook more effectively. This will support clearer and more consistent sharing of research activity, discoveries, and opportunities to get involved.

This issue also continues the newsletter’s tradition of combining research with reflection. A seasonal contribution, Sonnet on the Shortest Day by Robert Gilchrist, offers a nineteenth century perspective rooted in the site itself. Historical research features, including work on Nonconformist clergy and burial practices, further deepen understanding of the people and beliefs connected to Ballast Hills.

Looking ahead, the project will continue to build on this foundation through archive research, public engagement, and collaborative interpretation. Opportunities to contribute, whether through research, writing, or sharing memories and materials, remain central to the project’s direction.

You can read the full December newsletter here.

As always, thank you to everyone who contributes time, knowledge, and interest. This work continues to develop through shared effort, and each contribution helps to shape how Ballast Hills Burial Ground is understood, remembered, and cared for now and in the future.

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Heritage Open Days 2025 at Ballast Hills

Heritage Open Days gave us three different ways to explore Ballast Hills this year, each offering a fresh perspective on the site and its history.

Exploring History at 51 Lime Street

Our first event took place at 51 Lime Street, where visitors immersed themselves in the stories of the burial ground. Activity sheets encouraged people to look closely at details, while Gary offered a hands-on lesson in family history research. A slideshow traced the site’s long and complex past, linking it to the ongoing work of the project. Visitors also had the chance to see a selection of objects uncovered during recent pathway work. These finds most likely came from a historic rubbish dump upslope rather than being directly connected to the burials themselves, but they nevertheless shed light on the changing use of the surrounding landscape.

Events on Site at Ballast Hills

Despite persistent rain, two further events were held outdoors on site. Visitors braved the weather to explore the burial ground using our new Explorer’s Guide, which highlights gravestone inscriptions, pathway segments, and the wider landscape of the ground. Then, as the skies cleared, the atmosphere shifted. Poetry and music performed by Marina, Maurice, and Harry filled the space, weaving words and sounds into the very fabric of Ballast Hills. Experiencing these performances within the site itself created a strong and tangible connection with the past. Numbers were smaller than hoped, but those who attended were deeply engaged, with many discovering Ballast Hills for the first time.

Activities that Spark Reflection

Many visitors particularly enjoyed puzzling over family trees and taking home “design your own gravestone” sheets. These simple activities encouraged people to reflect on ancestry, memory, and how lives are commemorated. They sparked thoughtful conversations, showing how creative approaches can open up discussion about history, heritage, and identity.

Thank You

Events like these depend on the generosity and creativity of many people. We extend heartfelt thanks to Gary, Lynn, Jen, and Steve for volunteering their time and expertise, and to Marina, Maurice, and Harry for their moving performances. Thanks also to John, who kindly documented the events in photographs, which we look forward to sharing soon.

Looking Ahead

Heritage Open Days are about more than single moments. They open doors to hidden stories, connect people with overlooked places, and put sites like Ballast Hills onto a wider map of heritage and memory. This year’s programme showed just how powerful those connections can be. We look forward to welcoming even more people next year for another round of discovery and reflection.

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BHBG Leads Tyne and Wear Feature in Who Do You Think You Are?

We are delighted that Ballast Hills Burial Ground is the lead project in the Around Britain section of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine (September 2025, on sale now). The feature highlights our work with volunteers, descendants, and researchers to uncover the hidden histories of this remarkable unconsecrated burial place in Newcastle.

The Tyne and Wear section is packed with fascinating resources for anyone interested in family and local history, including:

  • Digitised parish registers and nonconformist records,
  • Shipbuilding and coal mining archives that shaped the region’s industrial identity,
  • The Unlocking North East Jewish Heritage project,
  • Thousands of digitised local newspapers,
  • A directory of archives, libraries, and museums across Tyne and Wear and County Durham.

Whether your interest is in ancestors who worked in shipyards, relatives who were miners, or family members buried in parish or nonconformist grounds, this issue provides a wealth of leads and stories.

Pick up a copy to see Ballast Hills featured and explore the many other ways to connect with Tyne and Wear’s heritage.

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Heritage Open Days 2025

This September, we’re hosting three special events as part of Heritage Open Days, England’s largest festival of history and culture, running 12–21 September 2025. These free events are your chance to explore BHBG, hear its stories, and experience its history through words, music, and hands-on activities.

Saturday 13 September 2025

Paths Through the Past: Discovering Ballast Hills Burial Ground

13:00-15:30 | 51 Lime Street (NE1 2PQ)

Perfect for individuals and families, this drop-in session offers a hands-on introduction to the history of Ballast Hills and the research uncovering its stories. Try tracing your own family tree, design a gravestone, or learn about the lives behind the memorials. Whether you’re just curious or already connected to the site, there’s something here for everyone.

Onsite Exploration of Ballast Hills Burial Ground

16:00-17:00 | Ballast Hills Burial Ground (NE6 1LL)

Discover BHBG in three engaging ways: follow an explorer’s guide at your own pace to uncover hidden features and solve site challenges; chat with onsite guides for lively stories and recent research finds; and take part in hands-on activities that bring this historic burial ground to life.

Ballast Hills Burial Ground Poetry and Music Performance: Beneath This Ground

17:30-18:30 | Ballast Hills Burial Ground (NE6 1LL)

Beneath This Ground is a powerful, site-specific performance of original poetry and fiddle music created by Marina Dodgson, Maurice Condie, and Harry Gallagher. Inspired by the lives of those buried here, the work blends words and music to bring their stories to life. Performed outdoors at the burial ground, the performance allows the space itself to become part of the storytelling, offering a rare chance to connect emotionally and creatively with this historic site.

Whether you join us for one event or all three, you’ll come away with a richer understanding of this remarkable place and its enduring significance.

See the full Heritage Open Days 2025 programme (12–21 September): HODs Event Calendar