One country's largest collections of poetry back together in Morpeth, after 15 years

ITV TYne tees
Floods in 2008 caused millions of pounds of damage. Credit: ITV Tyne Tees

One of the country's largest collections of poetry can be viewed once again, at Morpeth in Northumberland, 15 years after the collection was separated due to flooding.

The Northern Poetry Library, was devastated when floods hit the town in 2008, causing tens of millions of pounds worth of damage.

Much of the collection was either ruined or had to be moved elsewhere. Northumberland County Councillor, Cllr Jeff Watson said: "For 15 years we've been spread about and now we're putting it all back together. We've got our 15,000 volumes back in one spot, it's never happened since 1968 when we first started and then we had those disastrous floods in 2008.

"It was the whole bottom floor of the library, it was a devastating flood in 2008 and we had lots of stuff in the bottom floor, lots of periodical poetry which we lost and couldn't be replaced. It was devastating because we cleared it all up and we tried to do the best we could, but then the building was condemned.

"We had to move and we moved the library into the Chantry for a few years, but then it was only half the products that were on display so thats why were so pleased to have it all back together."

Jenny Kinnear, a Senior Librarian added: "We are just thrilled to unite the collection in Morpeth Library after it being dispersed for so long. In my career in Northumberland Libraries, I have never seen it all together like this and so it has been really exciting. And there is so much potential to work with these treasures going forwards."A poetry competition was held to celebrate bringing everything back together again and it being publicly viewable.

Susan Brownless came second, she said: "It's nice to be appreciated but it's also nice to be apart of something that will effectively go down in history. You can write the poem and it looks lovely on the page and you can share it with your friends and your family, but the best thing you can actually do is come out and read it to other people and get that response from other people when people really really enjoy it."

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To know...