There has been a regular trip (since the late 1960s) to the Lake District by members of what was (until 1992) the Computing Laboratory (now the School of Computing and NUIT – hence the colloquial name “The Lab Trip”). The trip is open to current and former Computing/NUIT staff/PhD students and their spouses/partners/children/friends. We select a date and a destination in the Lakes, share transport, aim to arrive by about 10.15am, spend a day doing whatever appeals, and try to come together for a meal around 5.30 or 6, before returning home at around 7.30 with the aim of being back in Newcastle before 10.
Quoting from Roger Broughton’s original index for the LabTrip pages:
The LabTrip was a getting together, team bonding exercise between the University of Newcastle and The University of Durham who in 1967 pooled their money to buy one big computer rather than two small computers. In particular, it was Ewan Page’s (Director at Newcastle) idea to provide an interactive computing service. This interactivity meant that computer users could enter commands on a terminal, a bit like a typewriter, and get an instant response. You take it for granted now but in those days you gave a task for the computer in the form of a paper tape or deck of punch cards to the computer operators and went away for lunch or do shopping or whatever. Then later in the day or next day you got the results, just to find out what you had done wrong, correct and resubmit.
John Lloyd recalls:
Elizabeth [Barraclough] organised what became the first Lab trip in the late 1960s (either 68 or 69) as a means for her NUMAC staff at Newcastle and Durham to get to know each other better. It was then extended to other Computing lab staff to fill spare places on the coach.
In more recent years the coach was abandoned in favour of lift sharing: drivers with spare seats are matched with passengers in need of transport. Other traditions have been tweaked slightly: we alternate destinations between Lake District and Northumberland, with venues including Holy Island and Rothbury so far.
A full list of trips since 1993 is below. For 1993–1999, the information is brief and based on a conversation reported in the information about the 1999 trip. Thanks to Brian Randell for retrieving this information, and to John Law for retrieving Roger’s archived site from 2010.
The full archive gives further notes and photos.
| Date | Where | Dinner |
| 1993 — 18th September | Langdale/Bowfell | |
| 1994 | Buttermere/Red Pike | |
| 1995 | Grasmere | |
| 1996 | Keswick/Scales | |
| 1997 | Swaledale (ambulance) | |
| 1998 | Elphicks’/Barbecue | |
| 1999 | Keswick/Threlkeld | |
| 2000 | No Trip | |
| 2001 | No Trip | |
| 2002 | Glenridding, Ullswater | |
| 2003 | Keswick, Derwentwater | |
| 2004 — 4th September | Glenridding, Ullswater | |
| 2005 — 24th September | Mungrisdale, Blencathra | |
| 2006 | Caldbeck, Carrock Fell | |
| 2007 | Grasmere, Rydal Water | |
| 2008 — 20th September | Blanchland | |
| 2009 — 26th September | Glenridding, Ullswater | |
| 2010 — 18th September | Grasmere, Easdale Tarn | Lucy’s of Ambleside |
| 2011 — 24th September | Grasmere | Wordsworth Hotel |
| 2012 | No trip | |
| 2013 | No trip | |
| 2014 — 13th September | Buttermere | Fish Inn or Bridge Hotel? |
| 2015 — 26th September | Pooley Bridge | Granny Dowbekins |
| 2016 — 24th September | Glenridding, Ullswater | Fellbites |
| 2017 — 9th September | Threlkeld | Horse and Farrier |
| 2018 — 22nd September | Braithwaite | Coledale Inn |
| 2019 — 22nd June | Grasmere | Tweedies Bar |
| 2020 | No trip, due to pandemic | |
| 2021 — 11th September | Grasmere | Tweedies |
| 2022 — 10th September | Threlked | Horse and Farrier |
| 2023 — 1st July | Holy Island | Barn at Beal |
| 2024 — 14th September | Glenridding, Ullswater | Helvellyn Country Kitchen |
| 2025 — 6th September | Rothbury | Queens Head |
| 2026 – 19th September | Pooley Bridge | Granny Dowbekins |