Northumbrian Gathering 2002

Date : 6/4/2002 Publication : THE JOURNAL

Medieval minstrels brought the past back to life yesterday as a market town got in tune with an annual celebration of Northumbria's rich cultural heritage. Morpeth echoed to the centuries-old strains of the hurdy-gurdy and bagpipes as t he 35th Northumbrian Gathering got under way in Tudor style.
Costumed duo Misericordia - who re-create the musical sounds of the 13th to 17th centuries using ancient instruments - helped launch the three-day festival by p erforming in the town's newly-refurbished Carlisle Park. This year's Gathering features a Tudor experience in the riverside park with var ious performers recalling the times of one of Morpeth's most famous sons, Willia m Turner, who became known as the father of English botany.

Yesterday Misericordia, former buskers Anne Marie Summers and Steve Tyler, enter tained visitors with their medieval music at a new herb garden and performance a rea dedicated to Turner. The duo, based at Brancepeth Castle in County Durham, have become regular visito rs to the Northumbrian Gathering which was officially opened by Morpeth Town Cou ncil chairman Derek Thompson yesterday.

He said: "The Gathering is a wonderful event and a cornucopia of Northumbria's t raditions. It does a lot of good for Morpeth and we hope this year's is one of t he best ever." The Gathering, first held in the late 1960s, is an annual feast of music, crafts , dance, dialect, customs, competitions and workshops celebrating Northumberland 's traditions and heritage. Yesterday's opening day featured street entertainment, a crafts exhibition in th e town hall and an evening concert by Tudor band the York Waits.

Today sees the Gathering's centrepiece, a costumed Border cavalcade and communit y pageant through the town centre at 11am. It will feature a procession of piper s, dancers, costumed soldiers, riders and banners. Tomorrow the event concludes with more performances in Carlisle Park, puppet sho ws, a musicians' session and a family concert in the Town Hall at 1.30pm.

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