Coquetdale has been the focus of the Out of Town (OOT) Museum project over the last few months and its next port of call is at the wonderful Bailiffgate Museum & Gallery in Alnwick.

Coquetdale is a sparsely populated rural area in North Northumberland but it has a rich heritage, a unique dialect, and teems with tales to tell. Since 2019 the OOT Museum project has been working with local people to create a permanent record of a former way of life before the memories are gone forever. To that end, oral history recordings, photographs, documents, artefacts, music and songs about the heritage of the area have all been collected that reflect people’s day-to-day lives as well as all the local traditions that include shows and fairs, rural music heritage, village green sports and more. The landscape also features heavily, for while it affords stunning views it can also be harsh and wild. The exhibition has already been enormously well received in places like Elsdon, Rothbury and Alnham (pictured) and you can now see it Alnwick before in moves to Hexham.

Talking Coquetdale: 24 May-2 July, Bailiffgate Museum & Gallery, Alnwick, bailiffgatemuseum.co.uk; 5 July-3 September, The Sill, Hexham, thesill.org.uk