Contact us
To contact Heaton History Group about:
Arthur Andrews
Arthur became a committee member in 2016 and took over the running of the bookstall at the beginning of 2018. His main interest, however, is finding interesting characters with close Heaton links, researching them and then writing, hopefully, an interesting article to be published on the HHG website. He came from North Shields but found, through doing a family history course after being made redundant, that relatives on his father’s side had lived in Tenth Avenue and had attended Chillingham Road School. He also spent a lot of his youth being a competitive member of Heaton Amateur Swimming Club. Hence his interest in Heaton.
Chris Jackson
Chris is a Mancunian who moved to Newcastle in 1981 and to Heaton soon afterwards. She studied archaeology and Latin before working first as a librarian and then in careers information. She was a founder member of Heaton History Group in 2013 and has been secretary ever since. She also produces our newsletters and maintains the website content and is an active member of the research group. Chris particularly enjoys researching and writing about Heaton’s history. Contact Heaton History Group through Chris on chris.jackson@heatonhistorygroup.org
Michael Proctor
Michael is a former nurse and civil servant. Born and brought up in Ashington, he has lived in High Heaton since 1988. He joined Heaton History Group after taking early retirement in 2013. He became actively involved in researching the stories of local people as part of the Heaton Avenues in World War 1 project and has continued that interest, now convening the HHG research group. Michael joined the committee in 2015 and acts as its committee secretary. He is also actively involved with the Aln Valley Railway in Alnwick, where he is involved in carriage restoration as well as being a diesel engine driver and trainee fireman.
Peter Sagar
Peter Sagar has been a resident of Heaton since July 1991, during which time he has taken an active part in the community in a number of ways. He is a well respected local historian who has many published articles to his name. Peter has an M Phil in the regional identity of north east England from the University of Northumbria and is a founder and company secretary of A Living Tradition, which seeks to help people in our region to learn more about our great traditions of human rights and community cohesion and to be inspired to help continue them. Finally, he is a qualified teacher of history and geography and has taught these subjects for over 30 years.
Alan Giles
Alan, a Brummie, came to Newcastle in 1965 to study and stayed. After 54 years considers himself a naturalised Geordie. He spent a working life in education and is now retired and pursuing lifelong interests in history and folk music. He is a founding member of Heaton History Group and currently chairperson.
Robin Long
Robin was born and bred in Seaton Delaval but fell in love with (and married) a Heaton girl, Kathryn Scott of Trewhitt Road. They have lived in Cochrane Park since 1972. Both Kathryn and Robin have been members of Heaton History Group since inception and Robin has contributed articles relating to St Gabriel’s Church where he is treasurer. A glutton for punishment, he has been treasurer of HHG since February 2018. Robin worked in the insurance industry for 40+ years starting as a junior clerk with the NFU Mutual in Osborne Road and ending his career running his own brokerage, Wansbeck Insurance Services in Bedlington.
Mark Nelson
Mark originally hails from Northamptonshire and move to Newcastle in the late 90s to attend Northumbria University where he studied electronics and then IT. After a brief spell working in London he returned to Newcastle and has been living in Heaton ever since. Mark modestly claims to be more a consumer of history than a contributor but he plays a crucial role making sure the sound and vision works at the talks, being the technical whizz behind our website and generally helping Heaton History Group run smoothly.
Fiona Stacey
Fiona arrived in Falmouth Road in Heaton in 1968 aged 6 having moved from rural Scotland. She attended Chillingham Road School and went on to Manor Park School. She spent her working life in dentistry within the NHS and Newcastle University taking early retirement in 2017. Fiona has always had a great interest in history and did well at school in the subject but managed to fail her O level somehow. She joined Heaton History Group as a member in 2016, and enjoyed it so much she volunteered to be part of the committee.
Caroline Stringer
Caroline was born in Sheffield, brought up in Northumberland and went to secondary school in Newcastle. Following a degree in social anthropology at Edinburgh University she moved to London and then Oxford to work in publishing but the lure of Newcastle was too great and she returned to a job at the Museum of Antiquities – early history group training! After a few years she retrained as a careers officer and worked for the next 30 years at Newcastle Careers Centre and then Northumbria University. She has lived in Heaton for 22 years and was a founder member of Heaton History Group as its first treasurer and is now membership secretary. She was involved in some of the research for the ‘Heaton Avenues in Wartime’ project and a particular joy of this was meeting the living family of one of the people she had researched. She enjoys attending the talks and events and meeting so many like minded people there. Other interests include crime fiction, gardening, films and being a heritage volunteer in the local studies section at Newcastle City Library once a week.