Our Work With Others

As one of Newcastle’s most iconic historical sites, and the one that gave the city its name, Newcastle Castle works closely with other organisations around the city and the wider region to promote education and provide exciting and unique events and opportunities for residents and visitors to our great region.

We have collaborated with a number of destination management organisations, including the Newcastle Gateshead Initiative and NE1 Ltd to provide a dramatic backdrop for VIP visits to the city, and to deliver all sorts of public events. These have included familiarisation visits for journalists and business leaders; corporate dining experiences in the ancient hall of the Castle Keep; business breakfasts, and large events with other partners. These have included English Tourism Week and the Merchant’s Quarter Revival in 2019 which saw thousands of people enjoying street food, market stalls, live music and entertainment on the streets around the Big Market, Cathedral and Castle. Our Corporate Dining events have included a reception for the British-Arab Chamber of Commerce, complete with fine food from the Crown Plaza Hotel and entertainment in the form of sword fighting on the roof of the Keep itself!

As a non-profit company ourselves, we also do a lot of work with local charities and educational establishments to promote knowledge of the Castle and the medieval history of the North East, and to allow people to develop a sense of their place in that history and to develop their skills. These collaborations have included award-winning projects like Hidden Histories with Beacon Hill Arts (now Beacon Films). They supports talented artists and film makers who have learning difficulties, autism and additional needs in writing, scripting and creating films, often for galleries, museums and film festivals. Working in partnership with Newcastle Castle, the filmmaking team were asked to create three films that focused on the lives of characters from the castle’s past. The musicians then created a soundtrack to the films and performed it, alongside a premiere of the films, at Playhouse Whitley Bay.

The films and music were woven into an interactive presentation, which was also designed by project members, and is now located proudly in Newcastle Castle’s Black Gate. The project won a Historic England Angel award in 2017.

As well as working with charities on projects based at the Castle, our Outreach Officer, George Blair, also works at taking brilliant medieval experiences to other charities in the region. Last year he worked with Marie Curie and Percy Hedley, offering a day of medieval fun at the Marie Curie Hospice and delivering a range of hands on workshops about the world of work in medieval times with students at Percy Hedley campuses around Newcastle.

Our Learning offer at the Castle encompasses a range of tours and workshops for school, college and university groups of all ages, and welcomes over 5000 pupils to the Castle every year. In addition we work with schools to provide regular week long work placements for students throughout the year, allowing them to get a flavour of what it’s like to work in the heritage industry. We also host longer term placements for University Students, where they can gain real life experience in the sector designing and delivering educational workshops, exhibitions and events. Every year, students from the Media, Culture and Heritage department at Newcastle University take part in a project to design new interpretation panels for the Castle, and we also work with Hospitality and Travel and Tourism students from the local colleges.

So if you would be interested in working in collaboration with Newcastle Castle, get in touch!