This section of the website has articles and reports that have not been published in the Society’s Journal. If you have something you would like to see published here please send it to the
We are not able to edit pieces for this page. They should arrive with us ready for publication: 2,500 words or less, structured, proof-read, consistent use of fonts and consistent foot or end notes.
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Article: The Wor Bella Schools Project, Peter Sagar. Bella Reay was the star goal-scorer in the WW1 Blyth Spartans Munitionettes football team. In the 1917-18 season she scored a remarkable 133 goals. Despite the enormous popularity of the women’s game, it was banned by the FA in 1921.
Peter Sagar’s article recounts his fascinating experience of delivering a two-day project for North East schools based on Bella’s life and time. The project explores the context of WW1, the dialect as spoken at the time. the life of the mining communities, songs, play writing and research.
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Report: Annual Chartism Day Conference, In Honour of Professor Malcolm Chase, Leeds 19 March 2022. Mike Greatbach
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Report: From the Crowd: Remembering Peterloo, Manchester, 6th August 2019. Peter Sagar
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Report: The Road to Peterloo, Tyneside Irish Centre, 18 August 2019. Peter Sagar
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Article: The Wind from Peterloo – Newcastle’s great reform demonstration 1819. John Charlton describes the situation on Tyne and Wear which led to this enormous demonstration in October 1819 two months after Peterloo. He raises a number of questions including why there was no massacre, how people communicated, how many attended, the part played by women, arms or no arms and the aftermath.
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Article: From Jarrow to Orgreave. In this excellent piece from the 2017 Gala Brochure, Dave Temple traces the history of the miners from the 1830s struggle against the bond and the hanging of William Jobling to the state-police tactics of the Thatcher government during the 1984 miners’ strike.
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Article: So Much has been Lost; Change and Continuity; the NUT in 1970 and the NEU in 2020. Peter Sagar contrasts the state of the education system in the 1970s to the current commodification and rigid control of the curriculum. He discusses the perversions caused by the league tables such as exclusions of weaker pupils to improve exam grade averages. The late 19th century serves as a benchmark for a narrow, arid view of the role of public education, a place we are being taken back to.
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Article: In The Newcastle Sailor Who Ended Up An American War Hero Thomas Bagnall tells the story of Sunderland born George H. Bell who served in the US Navy during the American Civil War and, injured in the line of duty, was awarded the United States of America’s highest military honour.
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Article: The Roma on Tyneside. Peter Sagar discusses what has happened to the Roma since they came to Europe and how the are faring today by the banks of the River Tyne.
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Article: From Tuzla to Tyneside: Remembering the 25th Anniversary of the Genocide at Srebrenica – a Northeast perspective. Peter Sagar writes about the numerous strong links between Northeast England and Bosnia which were forged in the crucible of the war in Bosnia in the 1990’s.
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The Cohen Report, Newcastle North in the 1983 General Election. In the 1983 General Election the candidate was Nigel Todd and his agent was Steve Cohen and Labour was confident of winning this seat. Along with many other results that year Newcastle North was a big disappointment with the Tories winning the seat. Undeterred, Steve wrote a report on the campaign, outlining its strengths, weaknesses and lessons learned. It is now thirty seven years since Steve made his recommendations and some make interesting reading: better knowledge of the voting intentions in different areas, training for canvassers, avoidence of assumptions about which areas would vote in particular ways etc. Thanks to Nigel Todd who provided us with this scan of the report.
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Article: Why the Northeast is a Prime Location for a Green New Deal. Peter Sagar recounts Tyneside’s history of industrial innovation and working class solidarity and cooperation as a platform for Newcastle to become a pioneering Green New Deal city.
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Article: Using the National Curriculum . Peter Sagar has done a trawl of the National Curriculum and identified areas in a number of subjects where teachers could find ways in to teach pupils about their local history and culture.