ABOUT

The birth of the Cherryburn Times

The Cherryburn Times started out as the Newsletter for the Thomas Bewick Birthplace Trust, founded in 1987 by a group of interested and committed supporters led by Dr Frank Atkinson, the founder of the Beamish Museum. It was felt that an occasional Newsletter would help to promote the purpose of the Trust, which was concerned with maintaining and opening Cherryburn to the public. The Newsletter was edited by David Bell, designed by Christopher Bacon and printed by Ward’s of Dunston. It concentrated on events such as the visit to Cherryburn of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 1988. Cherryburn was acquired by the National Trust in 1990. From that time the Birthplace Trust was wound up and its members re–combined to found the Bewick Society, with a broader remit no longer tied to the Cherryburn buildings but rather focussing on the lives and works of Thomas and John Bewick. The new Society wanted to continue the publication of the Cherryburn Times and a new Editor, David Gray of Northumbria University, was elected by the members, starting in 1993.

From the autumn of 1995 Cherryburn Times has been typeset by John L. Wolfe of the School of Design at Northumbria University and printed at the University’s Printing department. John Wolfe carried on with this task for more than ten years, working way past his retirement until the editor, having sat at his elbow twice a year to produce it, finally learnt how to do it himself in 2007.

The Society celebrated the 250th anniversary of Thomas Bewick’s birth in 2003. As part of the celebration, one of the members of the committee, Dr David Gardner-Medwin, edited a collection of essays published by the Society under the title Bewick Studies, using a generous grant by a supporter. The volume was set in type by Iain Bain, the doyen of Bewick scholars and a skilled typographer. It was issued free to members of the society (some copies remaining are still available to enquirers at a nominal price of £10). The Society was proud to notice the award of an honorary doctorate to Iain Bain by Northumbria University in 2003, the Cherryburn Times publishing the citation made by the University Orator in the Christmas edition of that year. It was Dr Bain’s unremitting work over many years that led to the important Bewick exhibitions in Newcastle and Yale University of 1978. These were the main stimulus for renewed appreciation of Bewick, even in his home town of Newcastle!

Perhaps inspired by the Bewick Studies volume, in recent years the contributions offered to the Cherryburn Times have become more ambitious in their objectives, with some being based on research in collections and archives and offering new insights and understanding of wood–engraved art – still predominantly on that of the Bewicks, though studies of other wood-engravers and even other methods of pictorial production in the Bewick era would surely offer valuable perspectives on the Bewick achievements. In addition, we have been able to publish entirely new finds such as the Atkinson draft highlighted on the Home Page of this website. For these reasons the Committee of the Society decided that Cherryburn Times should be promoted to become the Journal of the Society. A simpler Newsletter produced on A4 by the Membership Secretary will continue to be sent out periodically to members.

Contributions are invited from anyone having information of interest and value in respect of the works and lives of the Bewicks. (Contributions)