Step out on town history trail

Black Bull proprietors Mr and Mrs Hetherington and their staff, pictured in around 1900.

A new town trail, looking at the history of Wooler, has been developed.

The two-hour walk, which starts at the car park in Padgepool Place, gives an idea of how the town developed into the thriving community it is today.

People can learn how livestock was bought and sold in the market place every Thursday for more than 700 years before the auction mart opened beside the railway.

In the 1850s, Wooler had 13 pubs and a temperance hotel, and in the Second World War, it was designated ‘a defended village’, important in the second line of defence against invasion.

Glendale Local History Society has put together a town trail leaflet and information boards to tell the stories of the people and the place, using old photographs shared by local people.

The leaflet, produced with help from Glendale Walkers and support from the Archbold Trust, Berwick Rotary, Carnegie Foundation, Glendale Small Grants Fund and North Northumberland Voluntary Forum Small Grants Fund, will be on sale at the Glendale Festival on Sunday, and then from several local shops and the Tourist Information Centre.