Rediscovering Middlesbrough’s lost and historic pubs

A Teesside University student has uncovered fascinating insights about Middlesbrough’s public houses through a collaboration with local history organisations.

Katy Parsons, a third-year BA (Hons) History student worked with Heritage Unlocked and Teesside Archives as part of an employability module at Teesside University to help preserve Middlesbrough's pub and club heritage.

During the six-week placement, Katy accessed some of Teesside’s historic records. These include the recent addition of the Les Bulman Collection which contains some incredible snapshots and research on community and leisure life in Middlesbrough.

Katy worked through hundreds of original photographs, cataloguing, and digitising a selection of the collection.

The images bring out a glimpse of the former uses of these buildings before they underwent reinvention as retail outlets or other uses, and how they were transformed into modern venues.

The findings will also be beneficial to other researchers and visitors to Teesside Archives as they will now be able to access this unique material which provides a ground-breaking insight into the town’s history and leisure time from the past.

The selective digitisation of the material is beneficial and important to the future of the archive as this provides an efficient and sustainable form of preservation as digital access removes the need to handle the original photographs.

In the coming months, a selection of digitised material will feature in a collaborative exhibition with Navigator North at The Masham and a book featuring some of the best photographs and memories people have shared will follow.

Discussing the project and how it evoked memories in the local population involved in the research, Katy said: “British pub culture has a significant heritage in local communities and many people enjoy discussing the subject and Les Bulman’s photos have helped to capture cultural practices that connected communities. These snapshots reveal stories of lost or much changed buildings and communities that were once a rich part of everyday life in Middlesbrough. This collaboration helped me hone my skills in the heritage sector as this is also my long-term career goal.”

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