ONE HUNDRED UP – PUBLIC LECTURE

A public lecture marking the centenary of the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) in North East of England takes place in Newcastle on Tuesday 24 November.

Dr. Stephen Roberts, who is a member of the History of Parliament team of historians, and who edited A Ministry of Enthusiasm: Essays on the History of the Workers’ Educational Association (2003), will give a lecture on the history of the WEA and its role and achievements at the Literary & Philosophical Society, Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne (close to the Central Station) beginning at 7.00 pm.

Nigel Todd, WEA North East Regional Director, will also contribute some of the early findings from new research on the origins of the WEA in the North East.

Brought together in 1910 by a coalition including the National Union of Teachers, the Co-operative Movement, Durham University and the Church of England, the WEA spread across the North East. Providing courses for miners, shop workers and many other groups, its members also played an active part in the campaign for women’s suffrage. The movement has recently been brought to prominence by Lee Hall’s hit play, The Pitmen Painters, which tells the story of Ashington miners who took the art world by storm in the 1930s.

The lecture is free and is arranged jointly by the WEA and the North East Labour History Society.