Volunteer Voices Exhibition Opens at The Sill

A short drive west of Hexham, a new exhibition has opened that gives Tynedale residents a fresh reason to visit one of the area's best free days out. The Sill at Bardon Mill, Northumberland National Park's landscape discovery centre on Hadrian's Wall, is now showing Volunteer Voices, a display celebrating the people who have quietly cared for the National Park since its earliest days.

More than sixty years of stories

The exhibition draws on over sixty years of volunteer history, much of it never recorded before. It was researched and curated by the Park's own volunteers, and brings together oral-history recordings, old and recent photographs, archive newsletters and maps, and personal objects, from uniforms to the brown paper bags once used for litter picks. Together they trace how volunteering in the Park has changed from its beginnings to the present day.

The timing is fitting. Volunteer Voices has arrived during Northumberland National Park's 70th anniversary year, and it puts the spotlight on the generations of ordinary people who have given their time to look after the moorland, the crags and the heritage that draw so many visitors up the valley.

Best for: Entry to The Sill and its exhibitions is free. The centre is open seven days a week, 10am to 5pm, closing at 4pm after 31 October.

A local day out worth the trip

For Hexham-area families and visitors, The Sill is an easy half-hour along the Tyne Valley, and its grass roof, galleries, cafe and shop already make it a reliable wet-weather option. Volunteer Voices adds a genuinely local human story to the visit, and there is a companion book of the same name, put together by volunteer researchers Sally Hewitt and Sue Loader, on sale in the shop.

Sarah Burn, head of engagement at the National Park, said the exhibition "safeguards stories that could easily have been lost."

The exhibition was covered by the Hexham Courant. Full details and opening times are on the Sill website.