Heritage Open Days - The Fitzhugh Library

About

Visit the hidden gem of the Fitzhugh Library and its collection of photographs, books and documents concerning the County Palatine of Durham and the ecclesiastical parish of Romaldkirk. The Library contains over 70,000 items.

The Fitzhugh Library is a charitable trust established in 1988. We aim to maintain and expand our collection of material which we make available to the public for reference and research, aided by knowledgeable volunteers.

The area covered is the old Palatinate of Durham before its 1836 dissolution, plus the ecclesiastical parish of Romaldkirk.

At present, the Library contains over twenty thousand catalogued items – books, maps and periodicals, together with about 14,000 photographs as well as some 30,000 newspaper cuttings and ephemera. The current number of maps is over 2,000.

The material covers many topics including history, archaeology, and biography. There are strong sections on mining (lead and coal), railways, churches, education, and architecture. Several shelves are given over to material about the ecclesiastical parish of Romaldkirk and North Durham (Islandshire, Norhamshire & Bedlingtonshire).

Particular collections include the Hannah Hauxwell collection, the June Luckhurst collection about Teesdale chapels and recently the Teesdale Heritage Group archive of documents and photographs. We have the archives of local historians Alan Wilkinson and Eric Barnes.