Our Projects
2022
Throughout 2022 a team of local flower arrangers made displays in the church to illustrate in turn the work of Howick residents from past centuries who have contributed to the life of the estate. So far the blacksmith, the joiner, the midwife, the head gardener, the school teacher, the cook, the vicar, the soldier, the nanny, the postman, the florist and the coastguard have been featured and there are more to come in 2023.
2018 and 2020
Between 2018 and 2020 we organised a project to place 83 kneelers in Howick Church. 150 people were involved. Local painters and friends from further afield painted scenes depicting Howick’s history, its landscape, its community life and its flora and fauna which were then transferred to canvas and stitched. The completed display won many accolades and is considered to be one of the finest of its kind. Artists Melita and David Butterell along with Helen Cooper were central to the success of the project.
2018
Member Terry Quy worked with Community Arts Project North East to record six little plays about Howick for radio under the title of Howick - A Journey Through Time. Eighteen people, with ages ranging from four to eighty took part in the recordings in Howick village hall. It was relayed across the world by Hive Radio and CDs were made and distributed.
2015
We initiated and raised funds for the installation of audio visual equipment in Howick Village Hall, which has been used by us when giving heritage talks. It continues to be used by the very successful Howick Film Club and by visiting speakers.
We initiated and raised funds for the renovation of Boulmer Memorial Hall, which had fallen into disrepair and in danger of being demolished. Our researcher discovered that the Hut had a most interesting history as a very rare World War One hut from Berwick, and on the strength of this, and promises to give the hut a dual purpose as a regional heritage centre, we were able to raise large sums of money for a luxurious refurbishment. Although the heritage purpose was never fulfilled, the Hut is used occasionally for village events.
2015
Northumberland Coast Rocks was a lottery funded programme. We published a book by Helen Page and Ian Kille and sponsored a schools’ geology programme along with popular expert - led coastal walks for the public. Illustrated talks were given in six different village halls along the coast.
2014
For the commemoration of the centenary of World War One we joined forces with the Alnwick and District WW1 Commemoration Committee, the Western Front Association and the Royal British Legion, telling Howick’s war stories for an exhibition in the Bailiffgate Museum. This then transferred to Howick Church, where it surrounded the walls and remained for four years. In 2019 we made a permanent exhibition in an alcove of the church, telling the fascinating story of Lady Sybil Grey, the Howick Hospital and Lady Sybil's work in running a soldiers’ hospital in St Petersburg. Our researches were featured in a BBC series on Look North.
2013
The centenary commemoration of the Tadorne shipwreck, remembering the half-forgotten tragedy on the Howick coast in 1913. Our events over the course of a March weekend brought descendants of the drowned French trawlermen here to meet descendants of the rescuers. There was a public walk to the scene of the wreck and a church service. Then over 100 people gathered in Howick Village Hall for supper, also to hear the story of the shipwreck and the heroic rescue unfold, with music by the newly formed Howick Coastal Choir. A BBC film crew was in attendance, and later there was a reception aboard a visiting French warship. It's no longer half forgotten!
2012
A model in the church, Earl Grey Sets Forth. Howick children made small Regency costumes which they attached to cut out photographs of themselves in imitation of the Second Earl’s fifteen children. These were placed on a model landscape of the shore at Howick Haven, waving goodbye to their father (local farmer William Curry) as he set sail for Parliament, rowed to his ship by local resident Dr Rhian Swanpoel.