Workmen employed by Newcastle Corporation were busy carrying out preservation work on remains of the old Town Wall in the west of the city 90 years ago.
Our display photograph dates from late July, 1932. The appreciation and conservation of significant ancient structures was a relatively recent advance. In the middle of the previous century - the 19th - Newcastle's by-then decrepit Castle Keep had only just avoided being forcibly demolished to make way for a new railway line. And across Northumberland, sections of Hadrian's Wall had been plundered for building materials for centuries.
It's fascinating to think old Newcastle was once surrounded and protected by a mighty wall, around 20 feet high and seven feet thick. Today, a handful of sections of the Town Wall are still visible around the city.
