Thorpe Thewles History Group

03/05/2026

We're excited to offer more information about the final event on our programme for Local and Community History Month. Sedgefield library will be hosting a film screening of 'Lost & Found - The McLaren Diaries of Thorpe Thewles'. This will be followed by a Q & A session with Thorpe Thewles History Group. Contact Sedgefield library to book your free place.

03/05/2026

There will be a free public screening of “Lost and Found - The McLaren Diaries of Thorpe Thewles” today (Sunday 3rd May) at Holy Trinity and St. Mark’s Church in Fairfield, Stockton. The show starts at 6 pm. Plenty of parking in the car park off Kipling Grove, Stockton-on-Tees. TS19 7QU

03/05/2026

If you can’t wait till the two screenings of “Lost and Found” at Beamish on 16th and 17th of May you can see it today (Sunday 3rd May) at Holy Trinity and St. Mark’s Church in Fairfield, Stockton. The show starts at 6 pm. Plenty of parking in the car park off Kipling Grove, Stockton-on-Tees. TS19 7QU

Join us Saturday, 16th May 2026, 2pm & Sunday, 17th May 2026, 3pm for a screening of a documentary film based on a set of diaries written between 1911 and 1913 by the teenage son of a farmer in Thorpe Thewles.

These diaries present a young man’s stories of life in rural southeast Durham and beyond in the years immediately leading up to the Great War.

This film is brought to you by Thorpe Thewles History Group in association with Lonely Tower Film and Media, and made possible by National Heritage Lottery Funding.

This screening is free with an Unlimited Pass or Friends of Beamish membership.

Find out more and book your place here: www.beamish.org.uk/grand-cinema-lost-found

30/04/2026

Still plenty of chances to view our film documentary. Here are just a few:

St. Hilda’s Church, Hartlepool Headland - 2 pm, Saturday 2nd May 2026
Holy Trinity & St. Mark’s Church, Fairfield - 6 pm, Sunday 3rd May 2026
Seaton Carew Community Hub, Station Lane - 11:30 am, Tuesday 19th May 2026
Sedgefield Library - 2 pm, Thursday 21st May 2026

📜Local History Month📜
Lost and Found, the McLaren diaries of Thorpe Thewles
Film followed by Q&A by Thorpe Thewles History Group
In 2010, while looking for bargains at a car boot sale in Hull, Brian Powdrell purchased a set of three neatly handwritten antique diaries. The stall holder believed that the diaries had been retrieved from a waste skip that had been filled as part of a house clearance in Harrogate. The diaries were written by a teenage boy, David McLaren, who lived at Manor Farm, Thorpe Thewles. David was the oldest son of tenant farmers in the village. At the time of writing his diaries David was a senior pupil at Stockton Grammar School. In October 1913, he took up a scholarship to study Agriculture at Armstrong College, Newcastle. With the assistance of Lonely Tower Film and Media, community volunteers and subject matter experts TTHG has produced an 83-minute documentary about the discovery of the diaries, their contents and the life and times of their writer.
🔵Tuesday 19 May
🔵2.30pm - 4.15pm
🔵Centre for Local Studies, Darlington Library
🔵£3 (Booking required)👇

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1986903758628?aff=oddtdtcreator

30/04/2026

The Carlton/Thorpe Cross shaft

The full story of TTHG’s discovery of the lower part of an early C10th Anglo-Scandinavian cross shaft can now be found on our website, along with the results from our subsequent project to research, investigate and record the cross with an expert team from the Department of Archaeology at Durham University.

Full details, including a link to the virtual interactive model of the cross shaft, can be found below.

https://thorpe-thewles.org.uk/the-carlton-thorpe-cross/

If you prefer a quick summary of our project’s finding’s see the link to Roger Lang’s excellent video presentation below.

https://vimeo.com/1087647290

Funding for this exciting community archaeology project was provide by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Point North.

An amazing discovery by the Thorpe Thewles History Group in County Durham...

28/04/2026

I’m sure his talk will be of interest to a great deal of our followers.

A DATE FOR YOUR DIARY - Our 4th history talk is on Thursday 7th May with a 7pm start!

The talk presented by Martin Roberts outlines Billingham Monastic Granges of Bewley, Belasis and Billingham Grange which were once home to the monks.

Entry is by donation with refreshments available.

fans

23/04/2026

This sounds like an interesting talk by a good speaker.

23/04/2026

To all TTHG followers & supporters !

Please spare us 3 minutes of your time to complete the anonymous online project feedback form linked below.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd793P1ouHx0XgOHei4AHXWeLMf4iI7skIcRCLO1AZLlulvwA/viewform?usp=publish-editor

Our current project grant funders highly value such feedback.
By helping us gather sufficient project feedback, we get a valuable ‘box tick’ off them. This is considered next time we apply for another grant from them. Spending just 3-minutes of your time now could help us win future grants and continue our local heritage work.

Thanks in advance

TTHG

`Thorpe Thewles History Group are just completing our 'Preserving our Yesterdays for Tomorrow' project, and we need your help to show the National Lottery, who funded the project, how successful it has been. Please help us by answering these 9 short questions. No personal data will be collected as p...

18/04/2026

Come along and visit us today as part of the World Heritage Celebration Day events being hosted by Durham Castle.

14/04/2026

TTHG is pleased to announce that it will be taking part at the event below on Saturday 18th April 2026 in Durham Castle.

As part of the event we will exhibit our full-size replica of the Carlton/Thorpe cross shaft as will be showcasing the findings from this part of our current local heritage project (Preserving our Yesterdays for Tomorrow) which is now coming to an end.

As part of this free public event two of our group members will be presenting illustrated talks on two separate aspects of the above-mentioned project. These talks will be part of a larger programme of local heritage related talks to be presented in the Bishop’s Dining Room within the castle between 10:45 am and 4:00 pm. The titles and timings for the two TTHG talks are given below.

11:30am – 12:00 pm – ‘David McLaren Diaries of Thorpe Thewles’ by Sarah Hillier

3:00 pm – 3:30pm – ‘The Carlton/Thorpe Cross’ presented by Bernard Taylor

For a full programme of the day’s events go to:
https://www.durham.ac.uk/things-to-do/whats-on/events-calendar/2026/04/world-heritage-day-at-durham-castle-/

TTHG would like to take this oppertunity to thank The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Point North again for supporting and making this community based local history and archaeology project possible.

14/04/2026

If you want to watch TTHG’s documentary film, ‘Lost and Found - The McLaren Diaries of Thorpe Thewles’ there are still plenty of options coming up around the region. For a full list check out the ‘News’ section of our website. We are pleased to announce that the film will also be shown in May at Beamish Museum’s 1950 era cinema. For booking details for the last venue see the link below.

Join us for a screening of a documentary film based on a set of diaries written between 1911 and 1913 by the teenage son of a farmer in Thorpe Thewles.