On 15 June, volunteers, project partners, researchers, performers, and community supporters gathered at Brinkburn St Brewery to celebrate what curiosity has made possible at Ballast Hills Burial Ground. The event marked the close of the AHRC Curiosity Award phase, but not the end of the work.
The presentation focused on four themes: recognition, evidence, people, and protection. The project has helped to make Ballast Hills more visible as a burial landscape, heritage asset, and place of memory, while drawing together evidence from maps, registers, gravestone inscriptions, archives, geophysical surveys, laser scanning, and onsite recording.
The work has also begun to reconnect names in the records with families, occupations, neighbourhoods, descendants, and the wider history of Newcastle. Volunteers made much of this possible, contributing more than 1000 hours, student interns, and project partners.
Music and poetry from Beneath This Ground, performed by Marina Dodgson, Maurice Condie, and Harry Gallagher, formed a memorable part of the evening. Guests also explored project handouts, shared conversations, and enjoyed Ballast Hills Brown muffins and Ballast Hills Brown Ale, created with Brinkburn St Brewery.
The evening also recognised the project’s 2026 Newcastle University Engagement & Place Award for Engaging for Cultural Benefit. The final theme, protection, looked ahead to the continuing need for research, documentation, partnership working, and long-term care.
We are grateful to everyone who attended and to all those who contributed their time, knowledge, creativity, and support.
