Ghost stories, Bob Olley and proggy-mat making feature in the latest Discovery Nights, Discovery Museum’s popular after-hours event for adults this October

Discovery Museum’s next after-hours event for adults, Discovery Nights: Going Underground is on Friday 10 October from 6pm – 9pm.   

The theme Going Underground is inspired by the region’s mining heritage while bringing forward the folk traditions of people in the coal communities like proggy mat making, grassroots activism and even ghost stories. The evening will consist of hands-on crafts, activities, talks, historical objects and archives, bar and food.

Tickets cost £10 per person, and the event is for people over 18. To book visit: https://www.northeastmuseums.org.uk/discoverymuseum/whats-on/discovery-nights

Kylea Little, Keeper of History at Discovery Museum, said: “We’re hoping visitors will enjoy discovering more about the not-so-distant past when people were making proggy mats and protest banners, and many lives were centred round the industries of the area.

“The event will be another relaxed evening where people can stroll around the museum dipping in and out of activities, taking the evening as it comes at their own pace.

“Given the feedback from the last Discovery Nights event in July, people really relish enjoying the museum after-hours as a social space where they can try something a little bit different, and so we’re offering more of that.” 

In Discovery Nights: Going Underground visitors will have a chance to meet North East artist Bob Olley, a former miner who was the last on shift at Whitburn Colliery when it closed in 1968. Using images of his mining series as inspiration Bob will share his first-hand anecdotes of the brutality and humour of life underground and bearing witness to the violent Orgreave riots during the Miner’s Strikes of the mid-1980s.

Activities on offer also include writer Stephanie Lyttle leading poetry workshops inspired by Tyne & Wear Archives material; storyteller Justine Boussard, aka the Amateur Ancestor telling the Story of the Whale and the Steam Engine, and historian Henrietta Heald will deliver short talks on Newcastle’s trailblazing engineers Charles Parsons and Lord Armstrong.

Roving storytellers The Moss Troopers will tell ghoulish ghost stories from the coal age and people can try their hands at proggy mat making with a Woodhorn Museum expert, make protest badges, or handle historical objects related to the ages of steam and coal.

Discovery Nights are a highlight of the Steam to Green: A North East Energy Revolution events programme, Discovery Museum’s award-winning two-year programme exploring the story of energy past, present and future in North East England.

Another Steam to Green inspired Discovery Nights event is planned for 6 March 2025, to celebrate women from the North East region for International Women’s Day.

Created in partnership with Newcastle University, Steam to Green’s headline sponsor is Vattenfall. With other sponsors Lumo, Tyne and Wear Metro, Northumbrian Water and Newcastle International Airport, the programme is also supported by Newcastle University, Faraday Challenge, Reece Foundation, The Headley Trust, Friends of Discovery Museum, and the Art Fund.

Discovery Museum is just a few minutes’ walk from Central Station in Newcastle. It is open weekdays 10am – 4pm, weekends 11am – 4pm and closed on Bank Holidays.