Children given antiques insight into past

Jun 3 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

AN antiques dealer is looking to the future by teaching schoolchildren about the past.

Lesley-Anne Newman, who runs online antiques business All Your Yesterdays, has teamed up with the Wansbeck Education Enterprise Network (WEEN) to give youngsters an insight into their heritage.

Mrs Newman, from Ulgham near Morpeth, put together a suitcase containing more than 50 items such as coins, kitchen equipment and a miner’s lamp, plus old maps, photographs and postcards from the region’s past. Her first visit was to Stead Lane Primary School in Bedlington.

She said: “I showed the children a miner’s lamp and one little boy was so excited because his grandad had worked down the coal mines and he had told him about them, but he never had the chance to touch one before.”

Teacher Debi Wing said: “It’s one thing teaching the children about the past but when they can experience it for themselves, it really brings the lesson alive.”

WEEN was set up to help give local youngsters a sense of pride and ownership of the area where they live.

Manager Sarah Legge said: “This project enabled students to see Wansbeck with a rich industrial enterprising past and a prosperous future where they may consider setting up as an entrepreneur once they leave education.”