Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering

Established in 1968 and run by a Standing Committee of the Morpeth Antiquarian Society (Registered Charity No. 507640), the Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering is a grassroots festival of traditional culture in Northumberland and the wider North East region. Run entirely by volunteers, it features concerts, dance, crafts, historic re-enactments, dialect, storytelling, drama, workshops, sessions, singarounds, competitions, stalls, bellringing, orienteering, tours, walks, talks, and street performances, including a Saturday morning procession of costumed entertainers. Both professional and amateur performers take part, and the festival is noted for its warm welcome to visitors and local audiences alike.

The first one-day festival was held in the spring of 1968, inspired by a modest concert of Northumbrian music and song held in September 1966 to raise funds for the Morpeth Antiquarian Society, and to complement the autumn Gathering then held in Alnwick. The original pattern of competitions for singers, instrumentalists and composers, with a concert and barn dance, has expanded to over 60 events lasting three days. Competitions remain a core feature, encompassing music, dance, craft, literature and orienteering; the full list totals around a hundred and includes fiddles, singing, accordions, bands, the Northumbrian smallpipes, clog dancing, storytelling, dialect reciting and writing, composing, and crafts ranging from painting to shepherds’ sticks, railway models and needlework.

Each year the central events are enhanced by activities taking a special focus or marking an anniversary, with recent themes including coalmining heritage, the Great North Road, railways, Admiral Collingwood, life on the land, the Lindisfarne Gospels, and suffragette Emily Davison. Roland Bibby, a leading figure behind the Gathering, founded the festival’s publication, Northumbriana, a magazine featuring articles on the county’s history, dialect, folklore, traditions, natural history, literature and architecture. From this developed the Northumbrian Language Society, a charity set up in conjunction with others including Sid Chaplin, Fred Reed and Robert Allen, to research, promote and enjoy the historic language of Northumberland and North Durham, the direct descendant of the Anglian tongue of Bede.