Sunniside History Society

13/09/2026

What's New in the Archives
Tyne & Wear Archives, Discovery Museum
(Thursday 10 September, Thursday 12 November, 14 January 2027, 11 March 2027)
10.30am - 12.30pm
£9.95 pp - booking essential as places are limited

Would you like to discover and explore recently acquired archive material?

In this new series of events, archivists at Tyne & Wear Archives (based in Discovery Museum) will be sharing the latest acquisitions to the archive collections and showcasing newly catalogued archive material, much of which will never have been seen before.

It’s a chance to examine interesting documents, ask questions and find out more about the archives, how we operate and the sort of documents we care for.

There’s also an opportunity to join a guided ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the Archives Store - home to some very important documents including the oldest charter in the collection dated to 1183.

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Tyne & Wear Archives cares for over 12 miles of shelving filled with unique records, dating from the 12th century to the present day – and manages collections on behalf of Newcastle City Council, Gateshead Council, North Tyneside Council, South Tyneside Council and Sunderland City Council

06/09/2026

Are we really living in the "Age of Progress"? 📜⏱️
Back in 1991, Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) presented a thought-provoking BBC documentary called So This is Progress? that challenged one of our favourite historical assumptions: that life simply gets better, freer, and easier with every passing century.
Looking back through the centuries, the evidence suggests that "progress" has often been a double-edged sword:
The Loss of Time: A 12th-century agricultural worker only owed around 40 days of labour a year to their lord, enjoying dozens of holy days and feast days off. Before industrialisation, local miners and tradesmen often worked flexibly, earning what they needed for the week and observing "St Monday" to rest and socialise on their own terms.
The Rise of the Clock: The Industrial Revolution changed our relationship with time forever. Factory bells, pit whistles, and strict shift clocks turned time into a commodity owned by employers. Time was no longer measured by the seasons or the task at hand, but bought and sold by the hour.
Health & Diet: When archaeologists examined the 16th-century crew of the Mary Rose, they found only 9% of their teeth showed decay—compared to over 20% of British adults lacking natural teeth by the late 20th century due to refined sugar.
Decades after Jones made his film, many of these trends have only intensified:
Remote technology and smartphones mean work now follows us home, blurring the line between labour and leisure even further.
Ultra-processed foods have replaced simple diets, trading long-term health for convenience.
Community-level justice and self-contained local living have increasingly given way to distant, centralised systems.
The Industrial Revolution undeniably brought incredible technological marvels—many of which built the infrastructure and communities of our own region—but it also fundamentally redefined how we live, work, and spend our days.
Over to our members: How do you view the trade-offs of the industrial era in our local area? Did the shift from rural or small-scale work to organised industry bring true progress to North East working life, or did we lose something valuable along the way? Share your thoughts below!

So This is ProgressBBC2, 6 Dec 19912,380,000 viewers (according t...

06/09/2026

01/09/2026

A megaflood created the English Channel, 450,000 years ago, resulting in Britain becoming an island. 8000 years ago, the North Sea experienced a gigantic tsunami, wiping out life on islands in the North Sea that have since disappeared. And in 1771, flooding swept away 14 out of 15 bridges over the Tyne.

Historian Jonathan Wallace will be speaking at Sunniside History Society tomorrow (7pm Sunniside Social Club) about how floods have shaped our history. All welcome. Members £1, non-members £2.

30/08/2026

We'll also be holding our Annual General Meeting.

05/08/2026

Sunniside History Society were pleased to support the Cornerstone Church's community fair on Sunday 2nd August. The society had a table at the fair to hand out leaflets. Our next meeting is today, 5th August at 7pm in Sunniside Social Club.

07/06/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CkLwG8yjT/

Stan and Hilda Ogden were Coronation Street legends for two decades. But the man who played Stan grew up in the posh Newcastle suburb of Jesmond, a world away from the grim cobbles of Weatherfield.

The actor was born Bernard Arthur Popley in 1914 at Hove, East Sussex. His father Leonard worked for a jewellery company and played piano at social gatherings in the town. Their lives were changed by a culinary innovation, when Frank Smith opened the UK’s first crisp factory in London in 1920.

Crisps had been around for a decade or so but they were bland and unflavoured. There are no mentions in local newspapers of them being sold or consumed in Newcastle. Smith's genius was putting a small sachet of salt in every packet of crisps, which also had the effect of making people thirsty, and they became hugely popular in pubs.

The people of Newcastle have always liked their b**r, and Leonard Popley landed the job of launching Smith's Potato Crisps in the region. He moved his family to an upstairs flat on Grosvenor Gardens in Jesmond in 1924, and Bernard would spend the next decade or so in the neighbourhood.

He attended Rutherford College on Bath Lane and was an excellent tennis player, practising for several hours every day. He competed regularly in junior tournaments around the region, and was pictured in the Evening Chronicle after one of these events, looking lean and athletic.

When he left school he became assistant manager at the Playhouse in Jesmond Vale, a short walk from the family home. He made his acting debut there in Noel Coward's satirical comedy 'Easy Virtue' in the summer of 1932 at the age of eighteen.

Business was booming for Smith’s Crisps in the 1930s. They had 95% of the market nationwide, and built a factory and distribution centre on the Coast Road to serve the North East. Leonard Popley was able to move his family to a house on Kimberley Gardens, a few streets away from their flat in Jesmond.

Bernard spread his wings and began appearing in repertory theatre around the country, changing his surname to Youens, his mother’s maiden name. He was cast as Stan Ogden in Coronation Street in 1964, the henpecked husband of Hilda, played by Jean Alexander.

Stan’s first line in the show was "A pint of mild and 20 f**s, missus", setting the tone for the idle slob he’d play until his death in 1984. A far cry from the Jesmond lad who was one of the North East’s most promising young sportsmen.

Visit newcastlestuff.co.uk for more stuff about Newcastle.