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North East Labour History Society (NELH)

Founded in 1967, the North East Labour History Society (NELH) is the oldest labour history society in the United Kingdom. Originally founded to establish Labour History as an integral part of professional histography, the society has broadened its scope over the years to cover more topics: women’s suffrage, women’s rights and women in wartime – especially WW1, midwifery, nursing and health, the Spanish Civil War and the North East, race relations and black consciousness, the slave trade and its North East connections, education, art, film, music and literature.

'North East' in the context of England covers the counties of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Durham and Cleveland.

Origins

In September 1966 an initial steering committee of four people: Archie Potts, Joe Clarke (both at Rutherford college of technology), Edward Allen (Durham University) and Terry McDermott met to draft a constitution and make preparations for an inaugural meeting. The Inaugural meeting was held in December 1966 and the topic was The Present Position and Prospects of Labour History (John Saville, Hull University).

The prevailing discipline at that time was economic history: which was either taught or studied by the members. The national labour history scene was also predominantly economic historians, notably Eric Hobsbawm, Sidney Pollard and John Saville.

In the early days four papers per year were presented and ‘read’ at meetings. These papers were incorporated into an annual bulletin which was printed on Gestetner machines. Volume 1 of the bulletin, 1967, is available on the society's website.

The Society Today

The Society now holds ten meetings per year. Speakers are historians, activists, people pursuing independent investigations and sometimes post graduate students trying out their ideas on a more experienced audience. Membership of the society has also grown over the years and now stands at around 200 subscribing members. The annual publication, now called North East History (The Journal), consists of around 250 pages of articles, reviews and commemorations. As well as going to members, the Journal is subscribed to by a number of Universities and Libraries (scroll to the bottom of this page). In 1988 the Sid Chaplin Labour History Trophy, was established as a memorial to the great writer and playwright. It is awarded for the best essay submitted by someone who is not a professional historian and is intended to encourage interest in North East labour history. The winning essay is always published in the Journal and, in keeping with the trend in the Society, topics have included: accounts of the mining industry, including the great strike of 1984-85, the origins of district nursing in the region, controversies over vaccinations, the Irish communities on Tyneside, working-class attitudes to the Empire and the building of the Tyne Bridge.

In 2014, the Society established its website, originally to advertise meetings and enable people to join, but more recently it has added resources that have originated from the Society’s efforts: the Oral Histories and Database that came out of the Popular Politics project (2010-13 – see below), past Journals and radical lives, commemorations and obituaries of activists and leaders in the North East.

The society also as an active Facebook page......[details to be added]

Projects
Remembering Slavery, 2007. Led by the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society, the Society participated in this project and has published the findings of the project on its Popular Politics database

The North East Popular Politics Project, 2010-2013 drew in a large number of volunteers and participating organisations (below) to create extensive database entries on a wide range of North East history. The project also transcribed around 60 oral histories of activists and others.

Popular Politics Project: Supporting Organisations


 * Durham County Record Office, North Riding of Yorks Archives, Northumberland Collections (Berwick & Woodhorn), Teesside Archives, Tyne & Wear Archives.
 * Darlington Borough Library, Durham Clayport Library, Hartlepool Central Library, invited, Middlesbrough Central Library (Local Studies), Newcastle Central Library (Local Studies), North Tyneside Central Library (Local Studies, invited) South Shields Central Library (Local Studies), Sunderland Central Library (Local Studies).
 * Durham University Special Collections, Robinson Library Special Collections Newcastle University, Sunderland University Library and Teesside University Library.
 * Supported by the north east area committees of the Co-operative Movement and by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund

Silver Jubilee: Fifty years of Activism

In 2017 the Society celebrated fifty years since it founding by holding a day-school and also a number of events featuring special guest speakers. The day-school was a collaboration between the Histories of Activism Group at Northumbria University, and the North East Labour History Society. The event reflected on the last fifty years in the North East, and especially the great changes that have occurred in politics, culture and society.

The workshops focussed on specific subjects such as Labour Activism and Music. The backgrounds of the participants were mixed, including academics presenting their research, as well as activists and historians working outside of a formal academic framework.