The Fitzhugh Library - Overview

More and more people are interested in local history and find collections of past papers, maps and records fascinating. Too many realize too late that they have let their own family's contributions to past history be thrown away. We are working to prevent this. Please will you help us?

The Fitzhugh Library was set up as a charitable trust in 1988 (Reg. No. 700930) to maintain and expand an existing collection of local material, which has been made available to the public.

The area covered is the County Palatine of Durham before the 1836 ending of the Palatinate, This includes Bedlingtonshire, Crayke, Islandshire and Norhamshire. We also cover the Ecclesiastical Parish of Romaldkirk as it was before 1845 when Laithkirk parish was created.

At present, the Library contains over twenty thousand items: books, maps, periodicals, and ephemera, 14000 photographs; also there are some 25,000 sheets of newspaper cuttings. Using a simple system, everything is classified for easy reference.

The trustees intend to continue the policy of collecting County Durham material and to make the library available for reference and research purposes.

We are anxious, therefore, to contact interested persons, groups and societies who would be able to support our initiative, offering us material for safekeeping and helping us to become better known.

There are no admission charges but we would be grateful for any donations towards the maintenance and upkeep of the collection.

The library is open on Mondays and Tuesdays from 10:30 to 14:30.


The Library will close for the Christmas break at 14:30 on Tuesday 12th December and re-open at 10:30 on Monday 8th January 2024.