English Heritage in funds plea as history of Corbridge Roman Town's hidden artefacts wait to be told

Northumberland Correspondent Tom Barton reports from Corbridge Roman Town where 100,000 artefacts are hidden in storage

A charity which looks after some of the North East's most important historic sites - including several Roman forts along Hadrian's Wall - says more funding is needed to help them unearth the history of artefacts locked away in storage.

English Heritage says there are more than a million artefacts from the nation's history waiting to be studied - and for their stories to be told.

And now the national charity is warning that without the public's help, many of them will remain hidden away.

In one museum basement in Corbridge, in Northumberland, more than 100,000 artefacts are stored, away from public view.

Dr Frances McIntosh, curator at Corbridge Roman Town, told ITV Tyne Tees: "We've got down here the material that we don't have space for, [for] putting on display - some real amazing pieces that we can see.

"And even though they're not on display, it doesn't mean they're not important and they don't have value."

Dr McIntosh said there is so much material that the team at the museum are not able to look through the collection in as much detail as they would like.

"We look after it all, but we can't be experts in every sort of material," he continued. "We also don't have the time for that. So we might have to bring in experts, which all takes time and costs money."

One item waiting for its history to be unlocked is an otherwise unassuming box of pottery in Corbridge.

Dr McIntosh explained: "If you study it, it can tell you about eating practices, about trade, where they’re getting their pottery from.

"And we've got all this pottery here from Corbridge. It’s a little bit boring to look at. But what it tells us is really important. Maybe what they're eating, whether they're following trends and fashions.

"There's stories in every box and the research that we can do and the work we can do means we can tell better stories.”

Now English Heritage is asking the public to help fund research projects, like one that has uncovered hidden gems in Corbridge.

Donations from the public have already helped a project which has studied 600 of 6,000 glass shards excavated around Hadrian's Wall, near the town, which have revealed aspects of Roman life in the region.

Dr McIntosh said "We knew there was a lot of glass from Corbridge, but until you put in the time and the expert knowledge, you don't know how important it is and you want to be able to put that dot on that map and fill us in as part of the rest of the Empire and the stories that we can tell.

"But then also it means maybe we can do temporary exhibitions and tell those stories to people. And that's the exciting thing.”

Growing costs for the national organisation means it is in need of donations to help them make the most of the artefacts which tell the nation's history from Prehistoric times, right through to the Cold War.

Each year the charity spends more than £600,000 just to keep items in its collections across the country, the vast majority of which visitors never get to see.

Kevin Booth, English Heritage’s head collections curator, said: “It is near impossible to imagine a million of anything, it’s such a gargantuan number – but at English Heritage, when we took on the 400 historic buildings in our care, a million and more historic artefacts came with them, that is our reality.

"As the guardians of England’s heritage, we take our job of looking after these objects very seriously as not only are they priceless, they’re also an irreplaceable portal to the past.

"From storage to caring for, cataloguing, discovering, acquiring or putting on display, it’s a huge and expensive undertaking, and we need the public’s help."

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