Gordon Brown Legacy
Gordon’s generous legacy has provided us with much needed financial security, as well as enabling us to undertake several projects which would otherwise have been beyond our means.
Thus far we have established an annual lecture named in honour of Gordon's legacy, commissioned a promotional film, obtained professional marketing advice and training, and purchased a portable public address system for lectures. There are more details of those events below.
Further projects will follow, and meanwhile the capital provides a ‘buffer’ against financial pressures, and an investment.
promotional film
Gordon Brown Memorial Lecture
- a republican who was a strong advocate of empire and imperialism;
- a capitalist who spent his life advocating working-class interests;
- and a liberal politician who was a founding member of what soon became Britain’s first Marxist political party.
Dr. Peter Vickers
September 2019
For our second Gordon Brown Memorial Lecture, Dr. Peter Vickers, Associate Professor at Durham University discussed 'Which scientific ideas will last forever?'
Peter said 'There have always been scientific revolutions. Scientific ideas seem to come, and go.
If we are aware of the history of science, how can we possibly suggest that our scientific ideas will last forever? How could that be reasonable?
This event was undertaken in collaboration with the Centre for Humanities Engaging Science and Society at the University of Durham and the Lit & Phil.
- a republican who was a strong advocate of empire and imperialism;
- a capitalist who spent his life advocating working-class interests;
- and a liberal politician who was a founding member of what soon became Britain’s first Marxist political party.
September 2021
In a virtual event, Dan Jackson, author of the best-selling ‘The Northumbrians: North East England and its People, A New History’ explored the roots of the distinctive culture of the lands between the Tweed and the Tees, and how centuries of border warfare, heavy and dangerous industries, and the sociability and hedonism that so defined the communities of the North East have left an enduring cultural imprint.
Listen to Dan's fascinating talk via the link HERE
September 2022
The Gordon Brown Memorial Lecture 2022 welcomed
historian Lindsay Allason-Jones OBE to present
'People, Religion & Change in the Hinterland of Hadrian's Wall'.
The area immediately to the south of Hadrian's Wall is often forgotten when Roman Britain is discussed, as it is seen as being neither part of the Military Zone nor of the civilian south. However, recent excavations are beginning to reveal the area to be of great interest, reflecting the changes wrought by the Roman invasion. This talk used recent work on the sculpture from the region to shed light on the changes experienced by the inhabitants of the area, whether military or civilian, in their religious and cultural lives.
Lindsay is a leading authority on Hadrian's Wall and Roman Britain. At Newcastle University. She was previously Director of Archaeological Museums and is now a Member of the University's Materiality, Artefacts & Technologies in Culture & History Faculty Research Group.
September 2023
In the Gordon Brown Memorial Lecture 2023, writer and Explore Patron Michael Chaplin presented 'All at Sea: Travels & Travails of the Tyne Sailor' taking his audience on an epic journey spanning 2,000 years and the Seven Seas of the world, with one common thread: the ships in this story all began or ended their voyages in the River Tyne.
The Romans started it. They usually did. Their discovery of outcropping coal at Benwell created the richest of exports from the river over two millenia and a constant search for cargoes to bring back: timber, tar and herrings from the Baltic; citrus fruits, olive oil and wine from the Mediterranean; millstones from the Loire; mahogany from Mexico; tea from China and guano from the world’s most desolate shores. Seamen from the Tyne faced many dangers and privations to make safe passage home, many didn’t succeed. Without them Tyneside would not have grown as it did, but now these men are pretty much forgotten.
In his talk Michael sought to put that right and in the process tell their stories - comical, tragical, compelling and sometimes jaw-dropping – and honour the memory of these mythic travellers of the past. In that voyage through time and space, there were storms and stowaways, heroes and villains, fortunes made and lost, epic battles, shipwrecks and mutinies…
September 2024
In the Gordon Brown Memorial Lecture 2024 (which also marked our celebratory 10 years as an independent organisation) Baroness Joyce Quin, former Parliamentarian and MEP presented 'Angels of the North' which introduced us to some of the notable women of the North East that she has included in her two books Angels of the North and its recently published sequel Angels of the North 2 which focuses on the women of Newcastle. (Both books were written in collaboration with Moira Kilkenny.)
